Stone Soup Theatre has taken leaps and bounds with its current production, an intimate staging of Sam Shepard’s motel-room drama. Where past shows at the company’s tiny Fremont theater have often felt lacking in pizzazz or technical prowess, this one has raised artistic expectations on all levels. As Eddie and May, an endlessly bickering couple with a sordid past, Anders Bolang and Annie Lareau are a pleasure to watch. Bolang has captured the suppressed insecurities of a rough-talking stuntman, while Lareau keeps her own insecurities just beneath the surface, and we wait for her to explode at any moment. As the ghostly Old Man, John Clark makes his presence known even in silence, constantly weighing on the minds of Eddie and May. Daniel Arreola as Martin is charmingly innocent as he walks into yet another one of Sam Shepard’s crazy, messed-up families. Director Charlotte Tiencken has rushed nothing, lingering where we want to linger and making sure the audience doesn’t miss a punch line—Shepard has only given her so many laughs to work with. Here’s hoping that Stone Soup can continue this success. BRENT ARONOWITZ

Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 28, 4 p.m.; Sun., March 14, 4 p.m. Starts: Feb. 18. Continues through March 14, 2010