WHATEVER

Relevance Productions, Tom Barry and Trevor Belt’s upstart theatrical company, promises to bring “socially relevant theatre” to Kansas City. But with the KC premiere of Will Eno’s philosophical comedy Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), Barry and Belt do more than that: They take a stab at the vital. Scott Cox stars as a witty young man charting the way childhood slips into adulthood — and mocking the way we let life and the world have their way with us. In a typical aside, he attacks the word “whatever,” which he calls “the popular phrase we use today to express our brainless and simpering tolerance of everything, the breakdown of distinction, our fading national soul.” Thom Pain won high praise from New York critics; Kansas City can see what all the fuss was about at 7:30 p.m. at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre (3614 Main). Tickets cost $10 at the door. See relevanceproductions.com.— Alan Scherstuhl

Thu., July 8, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., July 9, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., July 10, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 11, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., July 15, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., July 16, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., July 17, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 18, 7:30 p.m., 2010