Of seduction and ambition

Shem Bitterman’s “Sensitive Skin,” a creepy-sexy chamber piece about ambition of all sorts in late ‘90s New York, features a bizarre love triangle as sleek and inviting as the New Order dance classic.

At a gallery opening of erotic photography, bad boy Todd (Paul Wesley) chases after the up-and-coming artist, Eve (an intriguing if nasal Kate Ascott-Evans), while Todd’s clean-cut older brother Nick (Warren Kole) just doesn’t get it. That is, until Todd gets Eve -- whereupon Nick’s competitive compulsion kicks in, and he methodically sets about destroying Todd’s one chance at happiness. Meanwhile, Eve can’t decide which brother she loves best, or whether she ultimately prefers her model and sometimes lover, Julia (Marguerite Moreau, in a smartly underplayed turn).

Director David Fofi’s production has a seductive minimalist elegance. Joel Daavid’s set design, a series of full-length, multicolored panels on which photographs are projected, suggests a world of surfaces and shadows, while costumer Alexandra Welker creates foxy downtown looks for the attractive cast. Bitterman himself supplies Eve’s images, a cascade of nudes both voluptuous and vulnerable.

But it’s all a little too calculated and telegenic. The material seems secondhand -- Patrick Marber’s “Closer” and David Cronenberg’s “Dead Ringers” have famously covered similar territory -- and Bitterman’s writing feels confined by the play’s narrow thematic and narrative demands.

A late monologue by Todd, a dirty language bomb of dark comedy and rage, sounds like the playwright at his more authentic.

The speech points to Bitterman’s restless sense of the unresolvable ache of love and hate in these brothers’ hearts, one that reads far more vividly than any of Eve’s “naked” portraits.

“Sensitive Skin,” Elephant Stageworks, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Ends June 24. $20. (323) 960-4410. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.