It would be too simple to call Track & Field a play within a play. This adventurous new work by Kevin Barry receiving its world premiere by the Know Theatre Tribe is really a play within a play within a rehearsal of a play within a play. Got that?

        It's not as complicated as it sounds. At its most basic level, Track & Field is about a middle-aged theater professor (Daniel Britt) who is obsessed with a college student (Sara Frank) who he watches working out on a running track.

        So we find him reading to his wife (Sherry Rowland) the new play he has written about a theater professor in lust with a young athlete. The woman's jealous boyfriend (Daniel White) further complicates matters for the professor.

        But Mr. Barry continues to twist and turn with what is really going on. As he piles layer upon layer we find that Track & Field is ultimately about play writing itself. With homage to many playwrights (especially Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard and Eugene Ionesco) Mr. Barry creates a clever absurdist sprint that comments on the very notion of writing and performing a play. The actors converse with the audience, shift in and out of their scenes, and send up the whole theatrical experience.

        But while some of the theater jokes do get laughs, none of the actors under Jay B. Kalagayan's direction has the high-energy comedic flair that is needed. They all play things far too straight.

        Track & Field spends a good deal of time intentionally making fun of itself. Mr. Barry even offers up his own critical theater review where Ms. Rowland concedes to the audience that they are watching an awful play. The cast needs a better sense of over-the-top fun with this type of material.

        Part of the problem is that Mr. Barry wants to have it both ways. He wants to satirize his own play, but he also wants to get serious in exploring the conflict between the middle-aged couple and the Gen-Xers.

        But it's hard to have any emotional involvement in characters who have repeatedly told you they are just actors playing characters (who themselves have been playing characters). The generational passions and the ensuing violent actions come out of nowhere with no context or story to help you understand.

        Track & Field is a play that oddly enough works best when it's not trying to be a play.

        Track & Field, through June 30, Gabriel's Corner, 1425 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, $10. (513) 871-1429.

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