An immersive play in St. Paul puts the audience in the splash zone

Since they couldn't bring a swimming pool into the theater, they brought the theater to a swimming pool.

Minneapolis-based Walking Shadow Theatre has found a unique venue for its latest show, "Red Speedo," and it doesn't feature a typical stage setting. Lucas Hnath's one-act drama takes place at the Bush Student Center Swimming Pool at Hamline University in St. Paul.

The humid, chlorine-tinged setting lends both authenticity and immediacy to this play about a swimmer whose Olympic dreams are threatened by the discovery of performance-enhancing drugs.

The environmental milieu — with the sound of water and the pennants of swim records and titles — also gives a literal nod to the idea of immersive theater. So there's a good chance you will get splashed.

Hamline also has been used for another site-specific show that opened in recent weeks. The Jungle Theater, also of Minneapolis, launched its taut run of Arian Moayed's deportation play "The Courtroom" in a mock trial room at the university.

"Speedo" centers on Ray (Logan Lang), a swimmer hankering for medals and endorsement deals. He even has a sea serpent tattoo on his back that already makes him stand out. The discovered drugs draw different reactions from those around him and it quickly becomes clear that they are not his only challenge.

Ray's older brother Peter (Paul LaNave), a slick talker who serves as his lawyer and representative, sees him as his meal ticket. Ray's swim coach (John Winston Stephens) and his sports therapist ex-girlfriend Lydia (Amanda Forstrom) also see him through their needs.

Hnath's script sets up some moral quandaries and also puts a light on the tradeoffs and sacrifices that elite athletes make. Ray is a strong swimmer with a flawless physique, but he's underdeveloped emotionally, intellectually and culturally.

"Speedo" starts with Peter going on a long monologue to the coach about Ray, who is sitting on a bench, with his right foot bobbing up and down. Peter talks about his brother and client as if he's not there or perhaps he's incapable of comprehending the polysyllabic words being spoken about him.

It's sickening to witness but quite effectively performed in Natalie Novacek's palpable production. She directs "Speedo" without artifice or guile. Since some of the usual design things — like a lighting design, set pieces — are absent, and because the performances are so gripping, it feels like you've stumbled into a private space and are witnessing something intimate amid the soft rustle of water.

Novacek elicits commendably honest performances from her capable quartet. Lang, who performs the entire show in said Speedo, gives Ray a kind a blankness that suggests a whiteboard. He's an open space on which others write their hopes and dreams.

Stephens brings a kind of ministerial moral authority and a righteous innocence to Coach. His club is faltering and his star swimmer is under a cloud, but he lives by his own code. With his passionate, commanding performance, Stephens makes us a believer in Coach's goodness.

Lydia has some history with Ray, and Forstrom gives the character a sharp edge, some natural suspicion and reserves of secret stewing.

"Speedo" has a plot line centered on the brothers, who diverge in their path and who summon filial fights from Cain and Abel in the Bible to Lincoln and Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Tony-winning "Topdog/Underdog." When they go at each other, choreographed proficiently by fight director Annie Enneking, it brings the whole show to its climax and justifies why the play is taking place at a pool.

This production of "Speedo" might leave you dripping but also provoked and moved.