Kai Justice Rosales and Alvin Christmas Photo by Riley Elton McCarthy

In fact, the website for Culture Lab LIC, that very cool non-profit visual and performing arts center tucked into what used to be a Long Island City warehouse, cautions that, among other things, the venue's new offering contains violent language, raised voices, the ingestion of rocks and bugs, references to cannibalism, blood, gore, and misophonia–a checklist that, judging from the reaction of my plus one when I invited her, may very well attract as many playgoers as it could potentially repel.

I'll add that I'm Going To Eat You Alive, which earned the playwright their second Eugene O'Neill National Playwriting Conference Semi-finalist Honor, also contains an effective balance of plain speak and poetics, matched with intriguing originality and an adventurous spirit, all wrapped up in traditional horror genre tension.

The play centers on the gently introspective Roach (Kai Justice Rosales), whose uniquely motivated passion for geology has inspired them to hit the road solo in a van for a cross-country camping tour of U.S. National Parks while vlogging a "rock-umentary" titled "The Grand Mineral Compositions of America's Greatest National Landmarks."

Projection/sound designer Mark Alberto McKnight offers snippets of Roach's work, but a more revealing topic would be the young scientist's affliction with pica, an eating disorder that addicts them to nonedible items. In Roach's case, rocks.

Apparently, phone and Wi-Fi reception isn't very good out in nature ("10,345 unread emails.") and as the 10th anniversary of their mother's death approaches, Roach's sibling Ez (Danielle Breitstein) has been frantically trying to get in touch with news that August (Alvin Christmas), an imprisoned someone from their past, is out on parole. Ez fears Roach's internet posts may leave them vulnerable to being found.

As the 80-minute play leaps back and forth in time, we collect hints of how the gregarious August, who also has a unique relationship with aspects of nature, has influenced Roach to have a more personal connection to the outdoors that goes beyond formal education at the local discovery center.

There are also suggestions about the night their mother died, with the play climaxing with a gruesome and graphic reunion.

In addition to the traditional horror genre theatrics, McCarthy has discussed in at least one published interview the play's subtextual exploration of issues pertaining to the gender-based dynamics of its trans and non-binary characters. This cis reviewer will leave it to those more qualified to comment on this aspect of the play.

Rosales gives a nicely varied performance as Roach, deftly bouncing from naïve to romantically inquisitive to defensively sarcastic as scenes go forwards and backwards in time. Breitstein and Christmas are both solid in lesser-developed roles, with the former playing a violin solo of Haley Heynderickx's "The Bug Collector" and the latter doubling as a mysterious character named Something Lurking.

Director Brandon Urrutia's production of I'm Going To Eat You Alive follows last year's workshop mounting at The Tank and, as is typical for Off-Off Broadway, the design team (set/graphics/props by Michael Ruiz-del-Vizo, costumes by Neka Cecilia Knowles, lighting by Paul T. Kennedy) is doing fine work with what appears to be a limited budget. McCarthy's script includes more details about the action than is fully realized at this level, and although inexpensive seats in the "splash zone" of the three-rowed theatre are offered, there was nothing splashing at Sunday night's performance.

This, of course, is not a criticism, but an advisory that at this stage many of the aspects of I'm Going To Eat You Alive that earn its content warning are primarily what you can see in your mind. Part of the fun is to envision what might be done in a larger scale production, which, hopefully, will not be long off.