Michael LoCicero, above left, as John, Tyler Fischer, center and at left, as Vince, and Amber Kelly as Amy in Tape at the Lighthouse Inn in Galilee.

There’s nothing like being up close and personal when it comes to theater. But Amber Kelly and her Theater of Thought have taken that experience to the extreme with an in-your-face staging of Stephen Belber’s Tape.

Tape, which is about a falling out between two mismatched friends over a long-ago sexual encounter, takes place in a budget motel in the Midwest. And for this site-specific production, which opens tomorrow, Kelly has set up shop at the Lighthouse Inn in Galilee.

Audience members check in at the front desk and make their way to room 117, where they find actor Tyler Fischer snoozing in bed in his underwear. Empty beer cans and a half-eaten bag of chips cover the table next to him.

About 20 chairs are set up in the tight space, just a few feet from the dozing Fischer. Another 20 seats are available outside in an enclosed courtyard, where people can watch the play through a picture window and listen to the actors on speakers.

At a dress rehearsal earlier this week, I took a seat inside the room, and can report that it made for a riveting night of theater, as Fischer and Michael A. LoCicero hurled beer cans about the room and wrestled on the bed.

But then, this taut, 70-minute show is pretty intense to begin with. Tape was a big hit at the Humana Festival in 2000 and was later made into a film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.

Vince (Fischer) and John (LoCicero), two chums from high school who are now in their late 20s, meet at a film festival in Lansing, Mich., where one of John’s films is being shown. John drops by Vince’s tacky motel room for a visit, only to be confronted about a decade-old sexual encounter between him and Vince’s ex-girlfriend, Amy, who’s played by Kelly.

It’s not clear what happened during that drunken encounter. Vince, a drug-dealing fireman who has just been dumped by his girlfriend, thinks it was rape, while John says at most it was a matter of “excessive linguistic pressure.” But as the conversation unfolds, Vince gets John to admit to behavior he’s not particularly proud of.

That’s when Vince whips a tape recorder from his backpack and reveals that he’s gotten the entire conversation on tape. To make matters worse, Amy, who is now an assistant district attorney living in the area, is on her way to the motel.

John, of course, is caught off guard. He is angry, confused and a little scared. What is Vince planning to do with the tape? What will he tell Amy?

Some interesting twists of plot follow when Amy shows up. And issues of privacy and sexual politics are touched upon. But the most intriguing thing about the play is the relationship between Vince and John.

Kelly said director Rich Morra was against casting LoCicero for the part, because he’s a good head taller than Fischer. They would seem mismatched. But she fought for the pairing, which she found compelling. Here’s a little guy with the big ego playing the part of the bully.

Vince seems to be out to right what he sees as an old wrong. Or is he just acting out of simmering resentment over the fact that Amy was willing to sleep with John and not with him? He certainly seems stuck in the past, an arrested adolescent who doesn’t have a lot going for him besides chugging a few brews and snorting a line or two of coke.

John, on the other hand, seems to have his life together. He’s making movies that deal with issues facing the world, and earns enough to sport a $150 pair of shoes that Vince can’t help but notice. How this relationship shifts over the course of the evening is at the heart of the play.

This the second local production for Kelly, a recent New York transplant who’s living in Narragansett. Not long ago, her Theater of Thought put on three short plays by Neil LaBute that played both Narragansett and Providence. Now she is turning to site-specific work, staging shows in places in which they are set, such as the room at the Lighthouse Inn. She said she’s hoping to “shake things up” with her choice of venues.

As for her stage work, Kelly seemed a little lost, a little out of place as Amy the other night. But that seems to be what she was shooting for. It’s only at the end of the play that she takes charge. Otherwise, Kelly’s Amy is thrown into a confusing situation that takes a while to sort out, one in which motivations are unclear and everyone has a different take on what happened in the past.

LoCicero, on the other hand, seemed right at home as John, playing the part with unforced ease. He’s the steady predictable one, the adult who wants to own up to his actions, while Fischer, a University of Rhode Island sophomore who just wrapped up playing Mozart in the school’s production of Amadeus, gave us a manic, manipulative Vince.

Fischer could seem a little affected at times, but his quirky portrayal grew on you and became more convincing. We knew, after all, from the opening moments of the play, when he stuffed a sock in his briefs, tied his hair in a top knot and played out kung-fu routines in the mirror that his Vince was a little unstable.

For such a well-told tale, though, it must be said that Tape kind of fizzles in its final moments. Don’t look for any exclamation points here.

Otherwise, it’s strong work all around, from both the playwright and the cast.

Tape opens tomorrow and runs through May 4 at the Lighthouse Inn, 307 Great Island Rd., Galilee, across from the Block Island ferry landing. Tickets are $25. For information and reservations log on to www.theaterofthought.com.

cgray@projo.com