Vulnerability. Respect. Honesty. Rigor. Curiosity. These are the characters’ community agreements that set the tone in Practice, a new dark comedy by Nazareth Hassan, directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant. The play, now showing at Playwrights Horizons through December 7, follows a company of ambitious actors starring in the latest work by the buzzy Asa Leon (Ronald Peet)— a hotshot theater director.

Longtime collaborators Nile Harris and Malcolm-x Betts have amassed a following for their sensationalist performances on stage and online: they love to keep us questioning the afterlife of live performance while never quite pronouncing the show to be over. In Temporary Boyfriend, they suspend the audience in a fever dream of fickle relationality as they embody lovers, enemies, and friends on stage, loosely inspired by the intimacies of their real-life connection.