Utter confusion.

It's what many people felt when the HIV/AIDS epidemic first became publicized. And it's the feeling that Paula Vogel's "The Baltimore Waltz" communicates.

Though the acting is strong and the minimal sets are well-utilized, the plot leaves the audience befuddled by the use of an unexplained stuffed rabbit and the presence of The Third Man (Thomas Rosenthal), who plays characters from doctor to lover to friend with little elaboration as to who he plays when.

Showing at the Boulevard Ensemble Theatre, the play features Anna (Carrie Williams) and her brother Carl (Greg Flegel) as they take a fictional trip through Europe after Anna is diagnosed with the fictional "Acquired Toilet Disease," or ATD, which serves as a parallel to HIV/AIDS. The whole trip actually takes place in the characters' imaginations while Carl is dying at a hospital in Baltimore.

Though the disease is fictional, Williams and Flegel make real the fear, anger and despair often associated with illness. In one scene, Williams goes through Elizabeth Coubler Ross' six stages of illness: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance and hope.

As Anna lies in bed, one can sense the depths of her depression and the toll it takes on her brother as he pleads with her to get out of bed, to eat just one thing.

Then Vogel adds a seventh stage of illness — lust.

Anna hops into bed with every man she meets in every country she visits. At one point, she and The Third Man (Rosenthal) rush around the stage, quickly converting the three-block set from a restaurant to a bed, shedding their clothes and covering up with a sheet.

As they proceed to writhe around, moaning sensual exclamations in two languages, Carl walks around the perimeter of the set talking about an exhibit at the Louvre.

Rosenthal plays all the lovers with convincing French, Dutch and German accents. The use of foreign languages can leave the audience confused if the members don't speak the languages. As Anna remarks at the beginning of the show, "It's the language that frightens me."

Vogel wrote "The Baltimore Waltz" after turning down a trip to Europe with her HIV-positive brother. By dedicating the show to her brother, Vogel comments on many HIV/AIDS-related issues.

No one knows about "ATD" because the government did not want to cause a panic. Carl and Anna go to Europe in search of cures that turn out to be fakes from doctors who are merely selling hope.

In his introduction, Artistic Director Mark Bucher warns the audience not to confuse the show's comic moments with its manic moments. Fortunately, that would be difficult to do.

While comic moments abound, the manic moments are what allow the audience to feel, for even just a moment, the utter confusion and sadness wrought by losing a loved one to AIDS. They are the moments that can bring a person to tears.

Grade: B

"The Baltimore Waltz" plays at the Boulevard Ensemble Theater, 2252 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., through Nov. 27. It is recommended for mature audiences. Tickets are $12 with a valid student ID, $17 or $21 otherwise. More information is available by calling 744-5757.