Know Theatre Tribe offers a trio of dark and dangerous encounters by poets of the stage Amiri Baraka, Lanford Wilson and David Henry Hwang for Mixed Blood, continuing for the next two weekend's at Gabriel's Corner.

        The Know Tribe has brought an infusion of new blood both onstage and off for the short plays, and the fresh talent results in the company's best outing in almost two years.

        We'll get over the rough patch first, which is evening opener The Dutchman, the superb urban drama that shocked audiences in the mid-60s and is a cornerstone of militant black drama.

        Know's rendition of The Dutchman isn't good or bad, it's simply wrong. It's obvious that Taren Frazier is new to directing because he doesn't trust the material. He tarts it up with arty imagery when Baraka's (then writing as LeRoi Jones) urgency and brutality demand a different approach.

        Mr. Frazier has found a fine leading man in Lyle Benjamin — but he's wrong for the part. The Dutchman is about an encounter in a subway car on a steaming summer day between a strange and sluttish, 30ish white woman and a 20-year-old black man.

        Their ages are vital to the action. It helps establish the balance of power and makes the young man's motivation — immaturity and hormones — credible.

        Mr. Benjamin is impressive — and well-matched by Tara Michelle Guilfoil — but he's too old for the role. It skews the audience's understanding of what the playwright has to say about what young black men are taught and what they learn, and how fear of them drives white society.

        What can be one of the most compelling, unsettling plays in modern American theater is merely interesting here.

        All three one-acts share a clever set piece by Geoff Raker. He fashions a large, open air box of steel piping (think jungle gym) that works equally well suggesting a portion of subway car, a horse stall and necessary equipment in an S&M chamber.

        Eukiah is a 10-minute suspenser by Lanford Wilson about somebody who maybe heard something he shouldn't. It's an elegant trifle, and director Michael Burnham wastes no time in fine-tuning the tension.

        Eukiah is all but a monologue for Matthew Pyle, who is happily back in top form. He has a clear affinity for the dark complexities of contemporary drama and for good directors.

        Mr. Pyle is back for David Henry Hwang's Bondage, this time in the director's chair. A gifted fight choreographer, he puts Sarah Mann-Drake's fluidity — and her stiletto heels — to delicious use. The first-rate costuming is by Gretchen Vaughn.

        Decked out head-to-foot in black leather, vinyl and chains, Ms. Mann-Drake plays Terri, a dominatrix in the throes of personal and career crises.

        Sly Mr. Hwang plays with the audience both with his anticipation-building title — Bondage — and his titillating setting — an L.A. S&M parlor when all he really wants to do is talk about racial prejudice, current events and the masks we all wear to hide our vulnerabilities.

        Quips and whips get equal play, keeping the audience delightfully off-balance.

        Unfortunately Michael Heekin is no match for Ms. Mann-Drake, whose unfettered performance alone is worth the price of admission. But Mr. Pyle does a fine job of maintaining the work's balance anyway.

        Mixed Blood, through Feb. 23, Know Theatre Tribe, Gabriel's Corner, Over-the-Rhine. 871-1429.

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