Is humanity’s nature fundamentally good or evil? When everything falls apart, will we act to protect the people we love most — or choose to protect ourselves? These questions lie at the heart of Before the Mountains of Madness, the first production in Two Crows Theatre’s 2026 season.

It was a fitting night for the world premiere of a drama set in Antarctica: Wisconsin temperatures hovered not far from those at the South Pole. But inside the Slowpoke Lounge in Spring Green, audiences found welcome refuge in an unusually intimate venue — one that proves ideally suited to this tense, atmospheric production.

Written by David Daniel, a core company member at American Players Theatre, Before the Mountains of Madness is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s 1931 cosmic horror novella At the Mountains of Madness. Directed by Marcus Truschinski, the two-man show stars APT regulars Neil Brookshire (James) and Nate Burger (Edward).

Daniel’s script follows the pair, who meet as boys and quickly become inseparable. James is timid and bookish; Edward athletic and adventurous. When a mysterious map surfaces, hinting at an ancient city buried beneath the Antarctic ice, it sets the pair on the adventure of their lives. They join a ship bound for the South Pole, alongside a crew of men whose motives for embarking on the voyage range from noble to deeply suspect.

The production’s design work does much of the heavy lifting in conjuring this frozen world. The set — composed of jagged blue-and-white shards — evokes a glacial landscape that is both beautiful and ominous. Thoughtful lighting, sound and costume design further reinforce the illusion that the audience has been transported far from Spring Green and into the unknown.

Daniel’s script balances Lovecraftian existential dread with a fast-paced adventure. Yet his writing offers enough character development to ensure that the audience doesn’t just follow the action, but cares about the people caught in it. Brookshire’s James serves as a trustworthy, empathetic center of gravity, while Burger inhabits the many other characters with impressive dexterity, shifting seamlessly between postures, accents and personalities. (Burger’s facility with this kind of theatrical shapeshifting will be familiar to anyone who saw APT’s The 39 Steps this fall.)

It’s a rare pleasure to see performers of this caliber working in such close quarters. In this small space, every gesture and facial expression registers — “almost cinematic,” as Truschinski described it in a recent interview. Despite the arctic conditions of the play’s setting, both Brookshire and Burger were visibly sweating by midway through the first act, a testament to the production’s physical and emotional intensity.

As the explorers leave their ship and set off across the ice by dogsled, James and Edward draw strength from their bond even as tensions rise among the crew.

“Every mind paints its own cell,” one explorer warns early in the play. When disaster strikes, a terrifying truth about the nature of humanity begins to emerge, forcing James to confront not only the limits of friendship, but the reliability of his own perceptions.

As the stakes grow increasingly dire, James must decide which version of reality to believe — and which one he can live with.

As the play barrels toward its mind-bending conclusion, the onslaught of revelations and reversals becomes overwhelming. I found myself wishing that Daniel had pruned the material a bit more aggressively, allowing the audience space to absorb the play’s deliciously horrifying unraveling.

Still, this is a minor quibble in an otherwise formidable production. The combined strength of the writing, direction, performances and design makes Before the Mountains of Madness a striking piece of theater. Experiencing work this fresh and potent in such an intimate setting is well worth the drive to Spring Green.

Before the Mountains of Madness runs through Feb. 1 at the Slowpoke Lounge in Spring Green.