While Outlaws Theatre often deals with the absurd and the out of the ordinary, this week's show plans to bring things down to Earth a little. Penn Staters can check out the drama One Quick Fix at 11:15 tonight at the usual Outlaws time and place, in 6 Arts Building.

"Outlaws is usually full of comedy," said the show's director, David Alfano (junior-English). "This show is not. It's about very mature topics at a college level."

Written by Outlaws newcomer Christina Keffer (junior-English), One Quick Fix tells the story of two college-aged buddies who learn the true deeper meaning of friendship when they are put through a series of life-changing events over four months time.

"My character turns 21 and he's just trying to do right in life," said Nick Marzano (senior-English), who plays one of the two protagonists, Adam. "Through no one's fault, he gets tripped up and he has to deal with one night's mistake for the rest of his life."

Adam's best friend, Jacob, played by Stephen Burd (senior-theatre and education), lives on the edge a bit more than his friend and finds himself stealing money from Adam to support a newly developed heroin addiction. Jacob convinces an inebriated Adam to shoot up with him and the long-term consequences change both of their lives forever.

"He's addicted to drugs, he can't pay his rent and he owes people money," Burd said. "Basically, his life is going down the [toilet]."

While the play may sound like a melodrama to some, the inspiration came from Keffer's real life experiences.

"The character Adam is actually based on one of my best friends that I met in Germany who actually had these events happen to him," she said. "I just felt like it was a story that needed to be told."

Casey Cunningham (senior-theatre), who plays Adam's girlfriend, Kathryn, easily felt the story's true-to-life moments and situations.

"I love [Kathryn's] interaction with the two guys," she said. "All three characters have known each other for a long time and it all comes off as very realistic."

Despite the characters' run-ins with some hefty emotional battles that are rare even among college students, Marzano said it wasn't all that difficult to get into the heads of the characters. At the start of the play, the protagonists are no different than any twenty-somethings.

"Anything that they run into is foreign to them, just like it would be to us," he said.

John Donahue (junior-theatre), who plays a drug dealer named Eli, compares the play thematically to the drug-oriented film, Requiem for a Dream.

"In the form of Requiem, this play shows us that sometimes life doesn't give us second chances," he said. "What's done is done."

Keffer agrees, but ultimately hopes that people will just be able to identify with the characters within the play.

"I think it's good to know that you can screw up your life with one moment," Keffer said. "I'm just worried that I didn't write it so that the audience will really get involved with the characters. I care so much for these characters and sometimes it's just so hard to find ways to get others to care."