British born playwright Martin Crimp brings a powerhouse theatre piece called The Country to La Jolla Playhouse for an American premiere. This 90-minute play is a tangled web of lies and deceit compacted into a tight drama about three sad individuals. It involves a husband, a wife, and the husband’s current love interest. These three characters have one thing in common; they are all co-dependent, continuously feeding off one another while playing non-stop word games that would challenge even the mildest of personalities into a declaration of war. The play is both exhausting and exhilarating. Richard (Gary Cole) and Corinne (Catherine Dent) have moved to the country to escape the hustle and bustle of the fast-moving lifestyle of urban dwellers. What they want — or at least what they seem to want — is the peace and tranquility of a slow-moving country life. But instead of harmony and easy living, the audience is asked to put the pieces of Crimp’s play together as if it were a puzzle, trying to fit the irregular pieces together so that the puzzle — and the character’s lives — can take shape. Like an amateur sleuth, we are asked to read between the lines of Crimp’s text, to follow the intricate steps of verbal dancing and discover the playwright’s message between the intricate message boards of each character. At times it translates much like a cerebral hemorrhage of frustration, loss, and failure. Against a set intentionally bare of scenery and props, we are forced to concentrate on the Pinteresque language that holds all the clues. The principal actors hold their own in their intense baiting of questions and answers. The suggestion made by Crimp in The Country is that many individuals transplant themselves hoping for a solution based on environmental healing alone; in this case, from the city to the country. The suggestion that order will come if one lives near an open lake and a green forest is challenged again and again as the husband and wife tangle with each other and then confront Richard’s lover, Rebecca (Emily Bergl). You end up feeling their exhaustion, as if you were involved in a mental marathon of wits with three strong competitors. It appears that Richard and Corinne’s middle-class marriage and the affair are both doomed, but the audience must decide that for themselves. Richard appears to be the major problem in that he hasn’t — or can’t — decide what he really wants in life. Because of his inattention (he is a doctor) he inadvertently allows someone to die and then makes quite plausible excuses for his actions. His inattention spills over into the stream of his family life as well as his extramarital affair. This is not a happy play with a fairytale ending; it a morbidly sad piece of reality served up by three actors who know their craft well. Even at the very end of the play as we see a glimpse of hope that this marriage may somehow work, the author allows the audience to await a possible outcome he knows will never materialize. If you want a challenging night at the theatre — where children don’t have names, where a glass of water tastes like nothing, where bags spill, where shoes can transform a person before your very eyes, and where stone chairs devour hearts — go see The Country. The Country runs until Aug. 31 at La Jolla Playhouse. Call the box office for more information at (858) 550-1010.