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Critics tend to gripe about gimmicky theatre. They often yearn for the pure production that allows the actors to speak the speech unburdened by distracting effects. Well, they’ve got one now.

"Tryst" at the Irish Repertory Theatre is not an easy play to stage, but thanks to a first rate collaboration, it's a gripping yarn that’s expertly and efficiently told.

Contemporary British writer Karoline Leach set her psychological drama in the Edwardian era, demonstrating a keen ear for the period and genre. It turns out to be a taut little thriller about a scam artist named George Love who cons desperate women into marrying him and then runs off with their life savings.

He seems to have met his match in Adelaide, a spinster working in a hat shop. And indeed, hats off to this savvy company that credibly maneuvers through the various sharp turns in plot.

The Irish Rep's tiny L-shaped playing space presents quite a directorial challenge. Add to that a slow to build script that requires actors to narrate their own actions and the stage seems set for a taxing evening.

Director Joe Brancato turns it all to his advantage, however, ratcheting up the suspense and keeping the action both intimate and intense.

Of course, none of this would work without a crack cast, and Mark Shanahan and Andrea Maulella certainly fit the bill. Shanahan constantly keeps the audience guessing. Is he pathetically demented or a menacing psycho? And Maulella mines multiple dimensions as well, turning Adelaide's mousy veneer into a spunky thing of beauty.

Lean and mean with twists, it's Hitchcock meets LaBute on a budget. Fans of no-frills theatre should make a date with "Tryst."