Bus Stop

There is something deceptively simple at work in William Inge's play Bus Stop. There's little-to-no action in this slice-of-life drama, which captures one night in a small Midwestern diner where a busload of passengers are marooned during a snowstorm. Instead, Inge crafts miniature portraits of people who don't often appear in modern drama: a pair of lonely cowboys, a hillbilly girl escaping her old life in hope of a singing career, a young waitress who dreams of romance and literature but finds a lecherous older man who's only interested in one thing (and it's not her mind). These people are everyday folks, but in this small diner they encounter unwanted attention, a moment's hope, a temporary end to loneliness and the realization that love can be an unlooked-for aggravation as well as a force that brings people together — sometimes only for a short time. Clayton Community Theatre presents Bus Stop at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday (February 1 to 11) at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (6501 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights; www.placeseveryone.org). Tickets are $15 to $20.