Steven Dietz is a tease. As audiences know from his most famous play, Lonely Planet, and from his most recent NYC production, Fiction, Dietz is a playwright who loves to keep us guessing about what's real and what's not, who's telling the truth and who's just telling stories (not that there's anything wrong with that). In Private Eyes, Dietz's mischievous shifts between illusion and reality are particularly appropriate because his characters are theater people. Is this an audition? A rehearsal? A therapy session? Or just a good mystery? It all becomes clearer as the play goes along, but meanwhile it's a field day for actors, and the Hat Trick Theatre has cast five good ones: Jack Holloway (a 2005 Best of the Bay winner), April Bender (who won raves for her performance in Hat Trick's Bash), Rob Glidden, Magali Naas and Jonelle Meyer. Joe Winskye directs. Jan. 13-15, 19-23 and 26-29, Silver Meteor Gallery, 2213 E. Sixth Ave., Ybor City. Sunday performances take place at 3 p.m. All other performances are at 8 p.m. Adults $14, students and seniors $9. 813-833-6368, www.hattricktheatre.org.
