Genre:

The Boomerang Theater company gives this Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) work its US premiere, with a stark, jarring production complete with sex, violence and the requisite Scottish accents. Two speed freak goons, Docksey and Jinks, hold one of their criminal cohorts hostage in an effort to punish him for a long-ago discretion. They beat him up, blast his ears with high-decibel music, affix clamps to his nipples and rape him—all the while threatening to have sex with his girlfriend, who's fallen under their control. It's harsh stuff, but not without its comic moments: There's a hilarious running joke about the relative merits of Marvin Gaye and George Benson, and the genesis of the play's title is too clever to spoil here. As the captors, Mac Brydon and Ian Pfister deliver remarkable performances, and the few moments that feel forced have nothing to do with the acting. Ultimately, the show's only major flaw is that it ends too abruptly, bringing the palpable tension that has been so expertly built up to a disappointingly premature finish. —Sara Cardace

• Where: Collective Unconscious
• When: Fri, Aug 13 at 7 p.m.; Sat, Aug 14 at 2 p.m.; Tue, Aug 17 at 5:45 p.m.; Thu, Aug 19 at 3 p.m.; Fri, Aug 20 at 10 p.m.; Sat, Aug 21 at 9:15 p.m.; Fri, Aug 27 at 3 p.m.; Sun, Aug 29 at 2 p.m.