Lawson Taitte

At this year's Festival of Independent Theatres, the wilder the play, the better the production.

Theater Fusion opened Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo on Thursday as its contribution to FIT 2008.

Savage in Limbo isn't Mr. Shanley's strongest piece. It's disorganized, but powerful when done as well as in this version directed by Jamie Baker. Elizabeth Van Winkle plays Savage, the title character, one of five 32-year-olds isolated in a Bronx bar.

The barkeep, Murk (Zane Harris), solicitously tends to the needs of the off-balance April (Carrie Bourn). Linda (Leslie Curry) comes in crying because studly Tony (David Lugo) has dumped her – but then Tony shows up to explain exactly what he meant.

The script brews up a farrago of symbols and ideas, but it's the sharply drawn working-class New Yorkers it depicts who really matter. Ms. Van Winkle agonizes appealingly, and Mr. Lugo is hilarious as a skirt-chasing heel who has suddenly realized that there is more to life. Ms. Curry, though, steals the show with a vibrantly sexy, knowing vulnerability – and gets her share of laughs too.

I'm sure Savage in Limbo might seem excessively strange for some tastes, but it's tame compared with Lisa D'Amour's Anna Bella Eema. Core Performance Manufactory is always at the cutting edge of the Dallas avant-garde. This time around director Elizabeth Ware has assembled a superb cast and created something that sizzles.

Three women sit on chairs next to folding tables almost throughout. Forming the fourth corner of the diamond, the formidable Kim Corbet improvises an original score behind them. Rhonda Boutte glowers and growls magnificently as a mother who won't leave her trailer-park home. She has visitations from werewolves and vampires, and she herself seems to sprout fur from time to time.

Bianca Baidoo makes a superb FIT debut as the young but self-possessed daughter, and Amanda Reyes is also impressive as a magical creature the daughter creates out of mud.

Anna Bella Eema sometimes seems to be going nowhere in particular, but be patient: There's a harrowing but uplifting story being told here, and you can't find better acting.

PLAN YOUR LIFE The Festival of Independent Theatres at the Bath House Cultural Center through Aug. 9. Festival passes $49 to $69, individual tickets $12 to $16. TITAS at 214-528-5576, www.bathhousecultural.com.

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