An unconventional love story about two interchanging couples, “Closer,” which opens on Friday in the Loeb Ex, could either be the perfect show or the worst show to take your date to. Exploring the selfish and sadistic motives of love, the play promises to be as abrasive and irresistible as a destructive relationship.

"’Closer’ is brutally honest, I think that's what I like about it. There are no bells and whistles. It is quite raw and bare," says Lily R. Glimcher '14, a first-time director. "I wanted a play with a small cast that would allow me to explore the complex psyche of these characters and their relationships.

"The play was originally written and staged by British playwright Patrick Marber in 1997, but Millennials might be more familiar with the 2004 film adaptation starring Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

“I told my actors not to watch the movie,” Glimcher says. Instead, she hopes to revisit the darker intrigues and intricacies behind the characters in the original script. Dan (Max R. McGillivray ’16) struggles between his two loves for his fragile stripper girlfriend Alice (Rachel A. Gibian ’15) and the stern, sophisticated Anna (Georgina B. Parfitt ’13), wife of the brutish Larry (Jacob A. Brandt ’14), who falls for Alice in this love square.

"There are no good guys or bad guys. Everyone who sees this show is going to find character traits that reveal the best and worst of themselves in a very real way," co-producer Brianne Holland-Stergar '13 says.

Glimcher had to work with the actors to make sure that they were not just comfortable with each other but with themselves as well.

"Rehearsals are just like therapy because you bring in things that you feel and have experienced in your own relationships,” Parfitt says.

For these reasons acting in or seeing the play might feel a bit like couples' therapy. "It's a frank, emotional, very human...experience of feelings," Parfitt says. "And, need I mention, it's sexy! There will be a lot of kissing."

—Staff writer Katya Johns can be reached at kjohns@college.harvard.edu.