RECOMMENDED

What might happen if Henry Miller and Edward Gorey sat down to rewrite “Our Town” when both were going through a surrealist phase and hitting the absinthe hard. “No Darkness Round My Stone” is one long, creepy, sexy poem about death and twisted love, and it’s a massive understatement to say that the play is hard to stage. Very few Chicago theater companies other than Trap Door Theatre could have really pulled it off with style (in fact, this is the first time Frabrice Melquiot’s play has been performed in the United States), but director Max Traux has created an impossibly entertaining production that makes the fact that the story doesn’t go anywhere completely irrelevant. The story centers around a pair of grave-robber brothers, straight out of a dark Jacobean tragedy, and with dazzling dialogue to match, but there are as many laughs as winces, with a fabulous Bob Wilson as a grieving father and transvestite, and the requisite corpse bride providing comic relief. Technically it’s incredibly beautiful, and the thoughtful choreography, mostly centering on dead bodies slumping to the floor in various ways, adds to the Gothic ambiance. (Monica Westin)

At Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland, (773)384-0494. Through October 11.