Joel David Santner as Isaac in Owl Moon.

By contributor Brett Abelman

There’s something special about getting to know a new play that’s a lot like getting to know a new person; they’re all mystery and surprises, and the journey into their hearts reminds you of your own humanity. If Taffety Punk’s world premiere presentation of Owl Moon, written by D.C. resident Liz Maestri, ends up leaving just a few too many mysteries unexplored in the end, it does offer many deeply felt — and often deeply funny — surprises along the way.

Lise Bruneau wastes no time in getting to the twists. The play opens with a sort of romantic dance-poem which sees the whole cast lovingly making out with each other, but the plot immediately takes an 180-degree turn. Two women come onstage dragging heavy trash bags across a wintry landscape in search of a place to deposit the contents; one of them, Shell (Esther Williamson), wears fuzzy purple mittens with little white snowflakes on them — and the mittens are flecked with blood. Shell asks her friend Salome (Kimberly Gilbert) to kindly refrain from cursing, to which Salome responds with a George Carlin-worthy string of four-letter words. From that opening salvo of unlikely contrasts, we’re off on a journey that will veer from disturbing violence to a nervously awkward Scrabble game.