By John Lyle Belden

The title, “Natural Affection,” despite being part of a spoken line, is ironic.

A lesser-known yet highly regarded drama by William Inge (its brief 1962-63 Broadway run suffered from poor publicity), it is a story of people struggling with life and relationships in upper middle-class Chicago apartments. The overall atmosphere is Tennessee Williams, without the humidity.

In the current American Lives Theatre production, single mother Sue (Carrie Anne Schlatter, or Christine Zavakos on select dates) is expecting a Christmas visit from her troubled teen son Donnie (Zach Hoover), allowed temporary release from the “work farm” to which he had been sentenced for an assault years earlier. Sue’s life had been hard, but she has found success as a buyer for a downtown department store, which irks her live-in boyfriend Bernie (Alex Oberheide), a struggling Cadillac salesman.

Next door are friends, of a sort, Vince (Ronn Johnstone), a mostly-functioning alcoholic with both high income and debts, and his wife Claire (Diana O’Halloran), who married for money and is now unsure what she wants – aside from Bernie, again.

Other roles are filled by Wendy Brown, Tim Leonard, Garrett Rowe (including a scene as Donnie’s fellow parolee), and Haley Glickman (most notably in the play’s climax).

This dark drama with, at best, a grim humor provides hearty material for the actors. The undercurrent of dysfunction soon becomes apparent between Sue and Bernie. Schlatter ably expresses the woman constantly pushing against her own insecurities, never quite sure she’s made it. Despite her workplace success, she still feels the need for a marriage to make her truly happy; which with her going on 40 in the 1960s, brings feelings of desperation. Oberheide, for his part, wears his neediness like the tailored suit he wears to work the car lot, coming across like the smarmy guy who’s about to talk you into all the options. It burns him that his girlfriend makes far more than he does, which he gives as the reason for not marrying her. On top of this, Bernie has an abusive temper, but more bipolar than controlling, bringing Sue along on the ride.

As noted above, the “natural” way you’d assume a Midwest family holiday to go is absent here, especially with the neighbors, as Vince tries to salve insecurities about both his financial worth and his sexuality with a wild swinger lifestyle. Johnstone is excellent at playing someone so perpetually pickled you could almost smell it on him without delving into comic drunk stereotype. We hear moments of lucidity between the slurred lines, a kaleidoscope of shifting emotions, and when he’s truly had one too many, it’s more pathetic than funny. O’Halloran portrays the debutante who never matured beyond high school, in desperate need of affections she can only see as transactional; Claire wants better for herself, without a clue about where to start.

Hoover’s Donnie is a Freudian scholar’s dream, the hurt boy in the body of a dangerous man, never sure how to connect with a mother he has only seen infrequently through his tragic life. His scars are both visible and deep, as we discover a character like a revolver with a single chamber loaded. Tension builds from one trigger moment to the next, to the last.

Directed by ALT artistic director Chris Sanders (one of his passion projects), assisted by Tim Leonard with Marta Hamilton as stage manager, this gripping study of human affections, however you define them, runs through Jan. 21 at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org and info at americanlivestheatre.org.