An old man (Jim Chovick) sits in prison in an unnamed country. Once a fine chef, he’s been there for some time, pondering the fact that a generations-old blood feud drove him to carefully plot and carry out the poisoning of a stranger he mistook for his intended victim.

A young interviewer (Laura Lee Juliano) visits, wanting to find out what happened. Both wary and weary, the old man is not really interested in talking.

“How did this all begin?” she asks.

“There was an insult,” he says, with all the naked simplicity of truth.

“When?”

“Two hundred years ago.”

Thus begins an intricate conversational pas de deux about truth and its lack, passion and obsession, the falseness of memory and the uncertainty of identity.

When the World Was Green (A Chef’s Fable), written by Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard for the Olympic Arts Festival at the Atlanta games in 1996, plays through March 13 at Sledgehammer Theatre’s St. Cecilia’s Playhouse.

Shepard is an acquired taste for many theatergoers. His plays are often enigmatic, off-putting, strange and demanding of attention and thought even after the fact.

Green is no exception. The viewer must work to understand why the old man succumbed to his father’s will, performing a violent act that took close to a lifetime. “It was my whole life,” he says. “Now it’s finished.”

As the conversation progresses, the old man gradually warms to the unexpected human contact, finally waxing positively poetic about the topic closest to his heart: cooking, describing journeys to distant lands and exotic food “piled high as a mountain, glistening in the sun.”

“What fascinated you about cooking?” she asks.

“Transformation.”

And it’s transformation we get, as the iceberg of distrust begins to melt and the interviewer reveals some of her own life details: a father who abandoned her as a child, a love for mangos and mushrooms.

Sledgehammer has a long history with Sam Shepard. The theater’s first production was Shepard’s Action, followed in later years by Angel City and True West. This show marks departing artistic director Kirsten Brandt’s directing swan song with the company.

Production values are high. The set by Nick Fouch is perfect: a spare jail cell, a bed, a rough gray wall with a high window and a table and two chairs for the interviews. Incidental music by Ruff Yeager is lovely and appropriate. Brandt has chosen two fine actors. Chovick will break your heart while he exasperates your sensibilities with his fatal obsession. Juliano, who has her own problems, touches this taciturn man enough for them to share his passion – cooking – at least once.

When the World Was Green (A Chef’s Fable) is not Shepard’s best play, but this might be one of the best productions you’ll see of it.

When the World Was Green (A Chef’s Fable) plays through March 13 at St. Cecilia’s Playhouse. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. at 7:00 p.m.; March 6 and March 13 at 2:00 p.m. only. For tickets call (619) 544-1484 or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their website.

It’s not often you see a “passion” play without gore, much less without a victim.

Playwright Max Enscoe, inspired by a Hemingway short story, imagines the psychological effect of the crucifixion on three members of a modern army unit in Thunder at Dawn, playing through March 20 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado.

Thunder at Dawn is set at an American military outpost somewhere in the Middle East, a week after the routine execution of prisoners, including, as the program states, “the crucifixion of an itinerant teacher from Nazareth.”

War-weary Capt. Marcus (Robert Smyth) is counting on a visit to the local watering hole to forget what happened on “nail detail.” But duty calls when Sgt. Maj. Vitruvius (David Cochran Heath) brings a deserter: new recruit Pvt. Domitian (Nick Cordileone), who got sick and left his post without permission. Marcus regards it an obligation to the kid’s late father (with whom Marcus served) to make sure it won’t happen again.

Marcus is rough on the kid, calling him a “pukin’, post-desertin’ quiver-liver.” But while Marcus is berating Domitian, a niggling interior voice reminds him that this was not “a normal crucifixion,” though he keeps telling himself and Domitian that’s exactly what it was.

Finally, when he figures the kid has taken enough, he invites Domitian to drink with him and Vitruvius. All need to forget this disturbing event. But the more they drink and talk, the less likely this becomes.

Thunder at Dawn, produced in limited runs in 1995, 1997 and 2001, receives its first full main stage production here. It’s a risky choice – the theme’s likely to alienate some patrons. But the believability of these characters will hold your interest and leads naturally to the question many still ask: Was this the son of God?

Lamb’s regulars Smyth and Heath give their characters just the right amount of weary swagger, along with the typical CO’s attitude that there was nothing unusual here. Cordileone is also excellent as the only one of the three who dares speak what all are thinking.

Thunder at Dawn plays through March 20 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. Shows Tues.-Thurs. at 7:30 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; matinees Sat. at 4:30 p.m. and Sun. at 2:30 p.m. For tickets call (619) 437-0600 or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their website.