Raw, Edgy 'Extinction' Opens At Guild Hall

“Our Town,” it ain’t. What Gabe McKinley’s “Extinction” offers, according to director Josh Gladstone, is “an evening of raw, edgy, dark, sexy, and dangerous theater.”

“Two college buddies’ annual outing of male-bonding and debauchery veers precipitously off course when unmet expectations spiral into a volatile showdown,” reads the play’s synopsis. Set in the ’90s in an Atlantic City hotel suite, the piece features Sawyer Spielberg, Eric Svendsen, Brynne Kraynak and Raye Levine. Mr. Spielberg and Ms. Levine are also producing, in association with the Barefoot Theatre Company.

Mr. Gladstone—who has served as the artistic director of the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall since 2000—directs for the first time in a decade. “I love this play,” he said. “Sawyer brought this piece here; he had fallen in love with it.” Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Spielberg had worked together at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor in “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Of Mice and Men,” both part of the Literature Live! series.

“I read a fair amount of plays,” Mr. Gladstone continued. “But this one really got me. It’s a comedy, but it’s dark. And it asks questions which feel very true to me: What is it that makes you friends with someone at some point in your life? And when you evolve, do you leave that friendship behind?”

“When Eric and I first started reading through it, we were sitting in the Drama Book Shop,” Mr. Spielberg recalled, “and we were just laughing hysterically. Sitting in this prestigious bookstore, trying to keep our voices down.” The two had been looking for a scene to do for a class they were taking “but we ended up in a coffee shop, reading the whole thing through from beginning to end.”

That “volatile showdown” between the two main characters—Max (Mr. Svendsen) still hell-bent on partying it up, while Finn (Mr. Spielberg) is starting to tone things down—features quick and snappy dialogue that, according to Mr. Spielberg, isn’t any different from a sparring match. “We’ve rehearsed on our feet, like boxers,” he said with a smile. “It was very ‘actors’ bootcamp’ stuff. But each word is a jab, and some are really a low blow.”

Mr. Svendsen agreed: “It’s a prizefight between these old friends who have grown apart—who’s the alpha now? But an alpha needs a follower too. It’s a give and take.”

“There’s a visceral depth to the play,” Mr. Gladstone said. “They’re just raw and ripped open. You’ve got to break through inhibition to do this play.”

The appearance of the two females—hired escorts—brings a sexual theme to the stage. Or was it there already?

“It’s a love story between two best friends,” Mr. Spielberg explained. “It’s a ‘bromance.’ It’s not sexual, but there are undertones. And what drew me to it in the first place were the break-ups I’ve experienced with some of my best friends from when I was in my teens, when you just veer off in different directions. It’s hard, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s confusing,” he said. “What draws people together can also be what tears them apart.”

“Extinction” will be presented in the now-familiar intimate setting that works well at Guild Hall, with approximately 75 seats on the stage, in the round. “The past few productions we’ve seen at Guild Hall were in the style,” Mr. Spielberg said. “The play is very conducive to that level of intimacy, and the set allows for a wall-less structure.”

The women have their own dynamics, one a seasoned pro and the other a newcomer to the world’s oldest profession. “There’s a lot of inherent sympathy to her plight,” said Ms. Kraynak, who plays Missy, the “more experienced” of the two. “Things are revealed about her story that allow the sympathy to exist in tandem with her overt sexuality.” Plus, there is “the common drive of the need for money,” Ms. Levine added. “And obviously, there were negotiations made between the two of them before they even walked into the room.”

“Extinction,” Mr. Gladstone said, “calls into nature the relationship of all friendship, the notion of loyalty, and the question of what is it that gives one friend power over another.”

Previews for “Extinction” begin on March 30. The play runs Wednesdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. until April 16, with 2 p.m. matinées on April 8 and 15. Admission is $25, or $23 for Guild Hall members and $15 for students under 18. For tickets, visit guildhall.org or call 631-324-4050.