It's a highly provocative show about sex, intimacy and truth complete with a scene in a strip club, partial female nudity and a warning to those under 18.

No Refund Theater will perform Patrick Marber's Closer, a show about four emotionally lost Londoners from different backgrounds and social classes looking for love and intimacy in all the wrong places.

"It's about the truth of love and relationships in a modern society," director Read Langlois (senior-chemistry) said.

"It illustrates the search for love and how futile it can be," she added.

The overtly sexual story centers on two men and women in London whose lives end up colliding and becoming intertwined in a hilarious series of sexual encounters.

"The show works as a series of fast-paced snapshots into the characters' lives," assistant director Erica Karapandi (sophomore-sociology and anthropology) said.

The oddly matched characters create quite a diverse group and include a doctor, a stripper, an aristocratic photographer and an obituary writer.

Jonathan Rose (sophomore-journalism) plays Larry, a good-natured doctor and loyal man.

"He's the most stable character in the play," said Rose of his current counterpart.

"Larry's looking for true love, but he's not going to force it to work," he added.

However, Larry also has some interesting sexual needs.

"His character needs to be sexually dominant which leads to some interesting moments," Langlois said.

Then there is Anna, a photographer in her mid-30s who's hopelessly searching for the love that is missing from her upper-class life. Langlois characterized Anna as more reserved than the others but still needing of other people.

"I'm a little depressed because I haven't found that special someone yet," said Chelsea Compton (sophomore-theater and film/video) about her debutante character.

"I sort of give in to the excitement of love," she added.

The character of Dan is an artistic one. He writes obituaries but struggles with his novels on the side.

"Dan is like the stereotypical starving artist, and he's very emotionally intense," Langlois said.

The character who will probably turn the most heads, however, is Alice.

"Alice is like the hot young thing," said Karapandi of the stripper/waitress.

Langlois said that Alice's parents died when she was young.

"She's like a traveling waif left to care for herself," she added.

Robin Wachsberger (sophomore-theatre), who plays the provocative Alice, described her character as a mystery woman.

"Alice is very overtly sexual and secretive. She's shady, needy and defiant," Wachsberger said.

Langlois said the show can be quite dark at times, but the message it conveys to the audience is a positive one.

"The performance shows the stark and raw truth about sex and love, but it doesn't lose the hope and joy that come with love," she said.

Karapandi said the characters' problems are easy for an audience to sympathize with.

"The audience can relate to all of the characters because they're all facing the difficulty of maintaining relationships," she said.

"Not to be cheesy, but it's about always wanting what you can't have," she added.

The performance includes some violence towards women and a somewhat degrading scene in a strip club with partial nudity.

The performance contains a lot of sexually explicit and graphic content and can be verbally vulgar at times according to Langlois. For these reasons, it is not intended for students under 18.