You show up at the Narragansett Theater in the village of Narragansett about quarter to eight, pay your 20 bucks and wait to be escorted to an undisclosed location. You follow a driver to a school parking lot, and then with the aid of a flashlight, make your way along a lighted path strewn with fabric to the site, a boarded up cottage with no heat or electricity. The only light comes from a battery-operated camping lantern.

You take your seat in one of about 20 chairs and wait, as someone lies in a rumpled bed under a blanket.

Welcome to Theater of Thought’s latest production, a site-specific run of Cindy Lou Johnson’s Brilliant Traces, which just so happens to be about a couple of strangers marooned in a remote cabin in the wilds of Alaska.

This is the second play Theater of Thought’s Amber Kelly has staged using a setting dictated by the script. Not long ago, she rented a motel room to put on a play about a confrontation between old friends in a motel. Rather than build sets, she finds them ready-made, in this case right down to the peeling paint on the tin ceiling and soiled wall-to-wall carpet.

The other interesting thing about this production, which has its ups and downs, is the fact that it was worked up without a director. Kelly, who is one of the actors, learned her lines, then got together with Providence actor Jeff Hodge to see what would happen.

She called it a “true experiment.”

The production is not without issues, however.

Johnson’s script is not nearly so compelling as that last play Kelly staged, Stephen Belber’s Tape, which held your attention at every turn. Brilliant Traces, on the other hand, takes its time to get into gear. And the grand revelations that we wait almost two hours for (without intermission) are not that surprising.

The play opens with Kelly’s Rosannah DeLuce barging into Hodge’s cabin wearing a wedding dress. She’s a runaway bride who left Arizona days ago and drove as far as her car would take her. Now she has broken down in the middle of a blizzard and is looking for refuge.

After a few agitated minutes in the warmth of the cabin and a few swigs of whiskey, Kelly collapses on the floor. Hodge’s Henry Harry carries her to bed, where she sleeps for two days.

So far, Hodge hasn’t uttered a word, and it takes the longest time before we learn much of anything about these two oddball characters — except that they both seem to be running from life.

Harry, we eventually find out, is a cook on a faraway oil rig and retreats to his cabin during his time off. People to him are “wild cards” who only make life messy.

DeLuce, it turns out, got cold feet just as she was about to walk down the aisle. She needed some air, slipped out the back of the church and hopped in her car. Next stop: the end of the world.

At some point, of course, we learn what has caused these two characters to flee to such far-flung climes. But when Harry bares his soul, DeLuce starts babbling about extraterrestrials. That is probably playwright Johnson’s attempt at being artsy, to come across as a little off-center. But it only blunts the drama of the piece.

The script, in fact, is full of little poetic moments from Kelly, who talks about floating above the car seat as she traveled to Alaska, how she’s afraid she would “crash into space,” lines that only add to the suspicion that her character is not all there.

“I don’t think I’m altogether healthy,” she admits.

As for the acting, that is often over-the-top. The delivery tends to be overwrought and exaggerated. Hodge, especially, seems to freak out at the smallest thing, like when he kisses Kelly’s ear and realizes that was perhaps not a sign of “socialized behavior.” After that he begins to sputter, to bang the counter and slide to the floor.

It’s all a little too intense for such a cramped and intimate space, with much too much yelling.

On the other hand, there is something visceral about this show, a kind of in-your-face quality that keeps your attention. And, of course, just getting there is an adventure.

Brilliant Traces runs this weekend and next, Oct. 10-12 and 17-19. To make a reservations contact Kelly at www.reservations @theaterofthought.com. You’ll be sent an invitation and directions via e-mail. Tickets are $20 at the door.

cgray@projo.com