For Bitter or Worse

Fans of the Mike Nichols film Closer may be disappointed with the superior stage version on which it’s based, now playing at ChyroArts Venue. The 2004 movie, which starred Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman, featured a watered-down ending with no twist, and its key plot differences were inserted, according to rumor, because Roberts wanted her character to be more sympathetic.

Theater audiences will get a gander at the nastier, more compelling version of Patrick Marber’s dark tale of wrecked romance thanks to Chyro’s continued devotion to wordy, seldom-produced plays. Closer has only been staged once in Phoenix in 10 years, and this version -- directed by Tom Leveen and featuring Michael Peck and Courtney Weir in the leads -- will startle and excite fans of Marber’s verbose, lovely dialogue or anyone who’s had a relationship shattered by an evil “friend.”