Sun. Feb. 11

 It was our first time inside the new New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, and after a few false starts - we first went to their offices on Dexter Ave., not the theater itself on Arsenal St. - we found ourselves inside a beautiful white-walled space. Entering the theater proper, we walked on the fringe of a desolate "Road Warrior"-like outback and through a cloud chemical haze. Clearly, doom and gloom were ahead. But laughs, too.  The play is "Silence," written by British playwright Moria Buffini and the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Directed by New Rep artistic director Rick Lombardo, it's a Dark Ages sex comedy gender bender and a half-serious/half-farcical romp through the worlds of kings, queens and peasants. Lewis Wheeler as King Ethelred spends a lot of time being tyrannical, miserable or wet - one act has him chained in his own dungeon, and semi-drenched. The plot has to do with the marrying off of the young boy prince of Cumbria, Silence (Emily Sproch), to a banished noblewoman named Ymma (Marianna Bassham). Complications ensue from the get-go, though the "Crying Game" surprise won't be too big a one for anyone paying even scant attention.

It opens with Ymma barfing into a well, and, be prepared, there's a lot of bawdy humor and references to bodily fluids. There's a lot of "bigness" in this play - overwrought emotion seems to rule the day - and Roger the priest behaves in a manner with which Bostonians may be sadly familiar. The set is striking, the acting strong. It is, though, a long, somewhat taxing play - about three hours counting intermission - and there comes a few points where you tire of the intricacies and multiple story lines, to say nothing of the king's winge-ing. But "Silence" is an intriguing beast for all the issues it raises, many of which are as pertinent now as they were way back when. Tickets: $50-$31. Today, Sunday Feb. 11 is the last day of performances. It[s a matinee, up at 2 p.m.

321 Arsenal St., Watertown, 617923-8487 newrep.org