In Adam Rapp’s quick-witted and disturbing drama about intimacy, friends Matt (Richard Nguyen Sloniker) and Davis (Tim Gouran) are visiting Amsterdam. Whether out of pity, contrition for a past wrong, or as a sadistic experiment, Davis gifts Matt a beautiful prostitute named Christina (Mariel Neto) after first sampling her “wares” himself. Matt and Christina’s encounter—tender, seemingly vulnerable, at once personal and not—holds very different meaning for all three, which the excellent cast bravely conveys. In Act II, Christina visits Matt in New York, where she allows him to project his narcissistic interpretation of their connection onto her blank—and by then quite blighted—canvas. With lesser actors, this predictable artist-muse obsession scenario could be insufferable, yet Red Light instead yields a mood of suspense and a wealth of succulent ambiguities to mull over afterward. MARGARET FRIEDMAN [See Margaret’s full review.]

Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: Oct. 22. Continues through Nov. 13, 2010