What lies beneath

It’s a director’s job to keep audiences on the edges of their seats once they bring a script to the stage. It’s rare that a play manages to affect a director in the same way while still on the page, but that’s precisely what happened when Deborah Block picked up Lucile Lichtblau’s “The English Bride.”

“I was riveted,” Block recalls. “I was curled up, wanting to know what happened next. Who’s telling the truth? Who’s lying? I was genuinely engaged in this script on a personal and real way.”

Block hopes to recreate that nail-biting suspense as Theatre Exile presents the world premiere of “The English Bride.” The play is loosely based on a true story about a bombing attempt on an El Al airlines flight out of London and ties in both the personal and the political motivations within the tense confines of an interrogation room. “The political and personal stories are perfect parallels,” Block says. “We are so driven by a strong need for outside forces to define us. On that human level, this is very much an Exile piece — where we shine a light on the part of the human condition which is a little embarrassing or where we lie to ourselves.”

If you go

‘The English Bride’

Through Dec. 2

Studio X, 1340 S. 13th St.

$20-$34, 215-218-4022

www.theatreexile.org