Two men, a woman and a child face us, strung across the stage, taking it in turns to recite words that can only loosely be called "dialogue"; the flat delivery and disconnected ideas evoke a word more like "transcription".
Grim? Not on your life. Writer-director Richard Maxwell's deconstructive exercises are always gripping and often hilarious - particularly when each character gets to sing a god-awful, derivative rawk ballad. And the low-impact no-style focuses us on ideas about a family's place, and no-place, in a wider community. Characters are perfectly schematic: uncertain woman (typical line: "Orrrr"); certain man ("That's nonsense."); quizzical child; dangerous stranger.
It's deadpan humour and intriguing games with tone and time make this New York play a particularly welcome visitor.
Ends tonight, 9.30 p.m.