Brutality, domination, and illusion versus reality are the prevailing themes in Jean Genet's Deathwatch, which wrapped up this weekend at New World Performance Laboratory in Akron.

The show takes place within the walls of a prison cell, where three inmates alternate between being the oppressor and the oppressed as they continually manipulate and strive to dominate one another.

The tortured French playwright Genet -- known as an orphan, thief and homosexual -- knows plenty about a prisoner's psyche, considering that he spent most of his life behind bars. He wrote Deathwatch, his first play, while in prison, drawing upon criminals he knew there as well as himself for his characters. a professional, international company at the University of Akron -- has fine-tuned this highly physical piece for 18 months. Co-artistic director Jairo Cuesta and apprentices Christopher Buck and Justin Hale are featured actors.

Director James Slowiak said he chose Deathwatch because Genet has always fascinated him, and he wanted a piece that his younger actors could sink their teeth into.

Entering the Daum Theatre at the University of Akron, theatergoers sat in their traditional rows as they waited for the play to start. Just before it began, a curtain opened and we were invited to sit in the round onstage, with the actors playing to all sides.

The play, translated from the version that Genet revised just before his death, has very few stage directions. That gave NWPL plenty of opportunity to improvise on the physical component of the show, using very few props.

In this production, all three of these menacing actors pounce, push, wrestle, grab, choke and knock one another around. It's a wonder they're not all battered and bruised after each of these brutal performances.

The three characters are like caged animals. Buck's Maurice is the most sexually threatening, a manipulative troublemaker. Just watching the way he slinks around the stage made my skin crawl.

Green Eyes, played by Cuesta, has the most psychotic rantings. Cuesta offered the most powerful performance Friday evening, making clear that Green Eyes is a tortured, condemned man. Paranoia also plays a key role in his part.

Things are not what they appear in this play. For example, the murderer Green Eyes is elevated to hero status. In addition, Hale's Lefranc is supposed to be the smartest of the three, but is he?

Don't expect a traditional plot here: Genet's theater is the theater of the absurd. This may seem simply like art for art's sake, until you look deeper.

Genet's writing relies heavily on ritual. The inmates' talk has plenty of repetition. Waves of attempted domination are interrupted by a bell, which Slowiak rings from slightly offstage. After each ringing, the characters freeze and then begin to shift their alliances.

At one point, all three actors enter into a sort of tribal ritual, with Hale pounding his fists on a bench as Cuesta and Buck dance wildly around. The activity is so frenzied and forceful, I half expected to see Hale's fists bloodied.

This is savage, grotesque material that's hard to stomach. The ugly language and content is meant for adults.

But one thing I can respect is how skillfully the NWPL actors have honed their physical craft, a trademark of their company. Those who didn't catch the Akron performances will have a second chance to see the piece in performances at Cleveland Public Theatre starting Nov. 4.