BogBoy

In transforming her hourlong radio play into a stageworthy production, Deirdre Kinahan has kept its length and the conceit of telling her tale by having her leading character write and read a long letter, interspersed with quick-cut flashbacks. The four characters deliver all their lines standing up, not looking at one another, and with limited gestures. The stage is prop-free. (The two central characters even ride in a car, with the actors standing side by side without so much as two hands on an imaginary steering wheel.) What transforms the piece are superb performances in those two roles, fluid direction by Jo Mangan, and stunning but subtle visual and sound design by Ciaran Bagnall and Philip Stewart, respectively. Together, they vividly evoke this story of a long-past dark secret and a more recent misfired attempt at friendship, both in a dark and lonely place.

Bagnall's transparent, gauzelike drapery panels, lit intermittently by blue, purple, gray, and brown streaks, and Stewart's encompassing but unobtrusive sounds are all that's needed to create the atmosphere of a remote and threatening bog near Nava, in Ireland's County Meath. Occasional flashes of hope in the design mirror the shards of progress in the lives of the bog's denizens. Brigit, a 30ish heroin addict from Dublin (Sorcha Fox), has come to the bog to get off and stay off smack. Her only trips to town are to a methadone clinic and her job waiting tables in a diner. She meets her neighbor Hughie, a reclusive, simple, hard-drinking farmer in his 50s (Steve Blount), when he offers her a ride into town. They strike up an unlikely and nonromantic friendship that at first seems destined to elevate both of them from their respective metaphorical bogs. But, as with real bogs, they are on wet, spongy ground.

There is black humor in Hughie and Brigit's relationship, and Fox and Blount mine it beautifully, as they do the pathos. Much of the serious plot-forwarding—and a bit of melodrama—comes from two minor characters: Darren (Emmet Kirwan), Brigit's ex-boyfriend and the father of her baby, and Annie (Noelle Brown), her social worker. Overall, "BogBoy" (to explain the title would be to give away too much of the plot) succeeds as a mood piece by illuminating universal themes.

Presented by Tall Tales Theatre Company, Solstice Arts Centre, and Irish Arts Center as part of 1st Irish 2011 at Irish Arts Center's Donaghy Theatre, 553 W. 51st St., NYC. Sept. 10–25. Wed.–Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.irishartscenter.org.