Lawson Taitte

FORT WORTH – Amphibian Stage Productions does the hard sell on Dark Play or Stories for Boys as a cautionary tale. But how do you protect your kids against predation by bored, precocious 14-year-old dweebs?

Carlos Murillo based his play on a real-life event. We first see Nick, played by Jason Cruz, as a college student in bed with his first girlfriend. When she asks what the strange growths on his torso are, Nick freezes. We hear his internal monologue agonizing over whether to tell her the truth or make something up. (Nick's language is considerably earthier – Dark Play is not for the squeamish.)

That loud, obsessive monologue recurs throughout. It's annoying the first times. By the end it makes you want to run screaming from the theater. Director J.V. Mercanti doesn't help, since he has allowed Mr. Cruz to deliver it in such a hyped-up, stagy manner.

The rest of the play consists of flashbacks explaining how Nick got the scars. At 14, he's in a theater class where the teacher (Elizabeth Mason, playing all the adult female roles) says that drama is like a game where the players don't necessarily know the rules – and which explores the darkest part of the players' souls.

This inspires Nick to launch an elaborate online hoax in which he pretends to be a girl answering a personals ad from an excruciatingly sincere, gullible 16-year-old, Adam (Joshua Heard). Reyna de Courcy plays Nick's imaginary alter ego, Rachel – and the interaction between Mr. Heard and Ms. de Courcy is the most intriguing thing in the play. Both make convincing high school students, and Mr. Heard encompasses the full range of Adam's development from starry-eyed naivete to violent rage.

Nick, however, remains the central character, and he's increasingly hard to figure out, let alone to sympathize with. Under the guise of the nonexistent Rachel, he develops a sexual obsession with Adam. But we don't have the sense that he was struggling with his sexual identity before his Internet escapade. And four years later he seems on an unremarkable heterosexual trajectory.

Ironically, the only real interest awakened by this stern wake-up call for parents is in the prurient stuff. Ms. de Courcy and Mr. Heard create a lot of heat in those online encounters.Plan your life

Dark Play or Stories for Boys continues through Oct.5 at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Runs 100 mins. $20. 817-923-3012. www.amphibian productions.org.