Uncomfortable 'Sexsting' is intense

"SEXSTING," SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY, through Feb. 25 (363-7522 or saltlakeactingcompany.org); running time: two hours (one intermission)

During intermission on opening night, I was asked if I was finding "Sexsting" enjoyable.

"Enjoyable?" Definitely not.

"Disturbing," maybe. "Frightening," perhaps. Certainly "sad."

"Sexsting" is a thought-provoking look at an alarming problem in the age of Internet communications.

Based on transcripts from an actual FBI Internet "chat room" sting operation in California, Doris Baisley and Susan Raffanti's drama — having its world premiere at Salt Lake Acting Company — raises questions about privacy and entrapment.

By the time it's over — with one man in jail, his family in disarray and an FBI agent wondering if his investigation had gone too far — you're left considering the possibility that maybe both men were predatory.

Anne Stewart Mark directs a six-member ensemble of outstanding performers, most of whom play multiple roles, including family members, FBI personnel and chat-room participants with provocative aliases.

Paul Kiernan and Peder Melhuse deliver riveting performances as the two central characters — Kiernan as John Doe, stuck in a Midwestern blue-collar job and a dead-end marriage, with two college-age kids, and Melhuse as FBI Agent Richard Roe, who is also frustrated with his job, pretending to be a 14-year-old girl ("Sandi-by-the-sea") as part of a sex-sting operation, and he is a divorced father with his own set of personal problems.

The rest of the well-honed cast play a variety of roles — Colleen Baum as John Doe's wife, Valerie, plus FBI Agent Sheila Flowers; Ryan Shaver as Jason Doe, an angry young man who distrusts his father; and Lauren Elyse Bradley as his older sister, Kimberly, who is long past her cute little ice-skating days. Cameron Jones is also well cast as Agent Barlow and a chat-room participant.

While John Doe seems to be outwardly concerned about where his family life is heading, the drama's central theme swirls around the slowly escalating Internet relationship between John Doe and Richard Roe's "Sandi."

Roe is constantly being pressured by his team to turn up the heat and entice Doe out into the open, so he can be arrested. But the more Roe corresponds with the alleged predator, the more he's convinced that Doe is just a pathetic, lonely old man who just wants to visit.

"I've got nothing to hide," says John Doe, chatting with "Sandi" from his computer at home. "What about you?"

What Doe doesn't know, of course is that "Sandi" has plenty to hide — that "she" is merely a decoy hoping to reel John Doe into the FBI trap.

"Sexsting" takes a hard, uncomfortable look at Internet responsibility. If you're a parent worrying about your children's time on the Internet, this intense drama focuses on some serious issues.

Sensitivity rating: Graphic sexual dialogue, one implied (but very graphic) masturbation scene. No nudity.

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E-mail: ivan@desnews.com