Review: Check in at Western Plaza Motel for 'Tape' adventure John Pick, left, and JB Waterman in "Tape," staged in a hotel room in East Hollywood. Ian Forester / June 21, 2012 June 22, 2012, 10:30 a.m. Sex, drugs and a cheap motel for $15 an hour: Who says L.A. doesn't know anything about culture? The Smith and Martin Company and needtheater have taken the stage directions of "Tape" seriously and staged Stephen Belber's cult three-hander in a room at the Western Plaza Motel on Wilton Place and Santa Monica Boulevard. Enter Room 28 with a handful of other intrepid audience members and park yourself anywhere: On the beer-can-strewn rug, or a lovely bedspread whose color spectrum resembles the curried vegetable dahl at a Whole Foods hot buffet. The guy pacing in his underwear is Vince (John Pick), volunteer firefighter and affable drug dealer, stoked to hang with high school buddy Jon (JB Waterman), in town to show his thoughtful independent film. After a few tokes, Vince will inform Jon they have some unfinished high school business (who doesn't?) involving a classmate, Amy (Kate Brown), whom they both dated. But only one of them slept with her. Under Ian Forester's admirably low-key direction, the performances occasionally become too subdued - this is theater, not CCTV - but Pick and Waterman feel credible as old friends, and Brown has a stillness that heightens the stakes at the right moments. This "Tape" plays better as behavioral study than psychological thriller, and there's a certain absorbing appeal to watching an actor exist in character only inches away. Need a better view? Get up and move, the cast doesn't mind. If you are a collector of site-specific shows, or have never seen "Tape," this is your chance to enjoy a dirty little adventure with free parking. Meet you by the ice machine. "Tape" Western Plaza Motel, Room 28, 1066 N. Wilton Place, Los Angeles. 8 and 10 p.m. Ends July 18. $15. Contact: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/255209. Running time: 80 minutes.