Below The Belt

Who really associates Ionesco and his kin with a social context? Isn't it easier -- and safer -- to nowadays look upon those mid-century protests simply as showcases for imaginative technique? But neo-absurdist Richard Dresser's social context is not so comfortably ignored: three "company men" stranded in a foreign country, employed in the manufacture of something they know only by its toxic effect on the local environs, their lives circumscribed by the prison-like bureaucracy their employers impose on them. These are the tragic victims of untempered capitalism, and Steep Theatre director Dana Friedman is unafraid to delve their existential agony.

Actors Matthew Carter, Brendan Melanson and Laurens Wilson likewise show no bashfulness in their explorations into the dynamics of isolation, anomie and intramasculine affection. (Starwatchers should take note of Carter, who garners critical attention with every appearance without ever departing for an instant from the ensemble ethic.)

The contemplative pace makes for a running time no longer than American Theater Company's 1999 production (which camouflaged its unpleasant aspects in quasi-"Dilbert" slapstick) but which instead offers us haunting images to ponder long after we have left the tiny storefront playhouse, reveling in our suddenly-precious freedom to do so.