‘Strangers, babies’ grabs hold

The conflict between the mundane and the unspeakable that underscores “strangers, babies” never resolves, but it certainly strikes our nerves. Scottish playwright Linda McLean’s edgy, enigmatic 2007 drama of redemption receives a riveting U.S. premiere by Rude Guerrilla Theater Company.

It centers on May (Brenda Kenworthy, beyond praise), a young woman whose capacity to nurture is undercut by a terrible crime she committed as a child. Never fully detailed by McLean, this event slowly registers in tangential flashes through five elliptical encounters between May and the men in her adult orbit. Unfolding across designer David Scaglione’s modernist set, the self-contained dialogues form a fragmented portrait of a troubled soul determined to move on.

McLean draws the growing paradoxes with spare assurance, as easy Pinter allusions give way to an original theatrical voice, dense yet naturalistic, arch yet poetic. Faced with this ambiguous property, director Dave Barton brilliantly sustains its structural quirks and quicksilver emotive shifts. Casey Holm’s superb lighting design deepens as the tone does, R.J. Romero provides crucial sound cues and Eric Wahl’s visual media contributions are invaluable.

The invested cast could hardly be better. Kenworthy has done fine work with Rude Guerrilla before, but her tormented protagonist here approaches the Geraldine Page empyrean, igniting her colleagues. Jay Michael Fraley inhabits May’s watchful husband with nuanced authority, and Rick Kopps tears into her dying, unforgiving father. Christopher Basile chillingly underplays the chat room pickup from whom May seeks expiation, and Kane Anderson is overwhelming as her even more damaged brother. When Frank Aranda turns up as new mommy May’s social worker, the tension generated by his casual alertness and Kenworthy’s agitation makes us lean forward in our seats. Such is the grip of “strangers, babies,” a remarkable achievement for all concerned.

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‘strangers, babies’

Where: Rude Guerrilla Theater, 202 N. Broadway, Santa Ana

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Also, 2:30 p.m. May 11

Ends: May 17

Price: $20

Contact: (714) 547-4688

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes