“I’m not an ax murderer,” Peter (Namir Smallwood) says to Agnes (Carrie Coon.) It’s his first line in “Bug,” Tracy Letts’ intentionally unsettling 1996 play, now in its Broadway debut. But what Peter does to Agnes turns out to be worse. She buys into his delusional conspiracy theory, that the government has infested them with bugs.

“Bug” was a shot of adrenaline and a delayed-release dose of anxiety when I saw it Off-Broadway. That was decades ago. Much of the effect for me has worn off.

Letts was reportedly inspired to write the play after Army veteran Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing more than 150 people.  McVeigh is one of the famous deluded perpetrators that Peter explicitly mentions in the play, along with Rev. Jim Jones (of the Jonestown Kool-Aid massacre), and Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber.) But what Peter tells Agnes is that all of them were framed,  because they found out about the massive government conspiracy, and therefore needed to be silenced.

This is a clever twist – Letts is never less than clever – but these dated references are just one of the several reasons why I was less taken with the play this time around.

I saw “Bug”  Off-Broadway at what was then called the Barrow Street Theater, starring Michael Shannon as Peter. I don’t remember if I directly tied it into what was happening in the world around us then — this was in 2004, a time when conspiracy theories around 9/11 proliferated — but in retrospect it surely added to the atmosphere. Letts has recently implied, and others have explicitly agreed, that the depiction of political paranoia was prescient; that the revival is especially timely. I can’t say I buy this. The darkness in 2026 feels of a different order — a creeping, and very real, authoritarian takeover.  Yes, there is an analogy to anti-vaccine crusaders, the Epstein file fanatics, deep state dissenters, but these can not now be separated from the Trump power grabs that feed off of them, and overshadow them. And, in any case, the particular paranoia in “Bug” is too peculiar to feel like serious commentary.

If “Bug” can’t plausibly be promoted as a message play, certainly not as a realistic one, there is still the potential for more narrow chills and thrills. Michael Shannon’s memorably odd and charismatic performance drew us into his claustrophobic world; indeed, cornered us in the sleazy motel room where the play unfolds. The new “Bug,” though, is at MTC’s Broadway house, the Samuel J. Friedman, which is more than three times the size. Rather than drawn in, I felt distanced from what was going on.

The focus has also shifted from Peter the seducer to Agnes the seduced.  Carrie Coon, who is the wife of the playwright, takes center stage, not least because her performance showcases the great range of an actress who has just come off of her high-profile role as the straitlaced, ambitious Bertha in “The Gilded Age,” striving to rule over New York society.

Agnes is just about the exact opposite. Far from straitlaced, she is frequently naked (your phones must be locked into a Yondr pouch)  She is barely surviving, the battered ex-wife of a recently released convict (Steve Key),  and the still-mourning mother of a child who disappeared from a grocery store a decade ago at the age of six. She has taken refuge in a seedy motel in Oklahoma City, where one of her few friends, fellow waitress RJ (Jennifer Engstrom), visits with somebody she herself has just met, Peter. Peter seems odd from the start, and withdrawn. We certainly believe Dr. Sweet (Randall Arney) when he appears at the motel and explains to Agnes: “He’s been diagnosed as a delusional paranoid with schizophrenic tendencies, although personally, I’m not a big fan of labels. His doctors believe he’s potentially dangerous to himself, or even others.” (The rest of the scene involving Dr. Sweet is so farfetched that it left me wondering whether we were supposed to understand that he is Agnes’, and/or Peter’s, hallucination.)

There is little evidence of Peter’s charisma, which is obviously a conscious choice by Smallwood and director David Cromer (whose low-key approach has worked wonders with shows like “Our Town” and “The Band’s Visit.”) The result is that rather Peter seducing Agnes into his worldview, it’s Agnes in all her loneliness and neediness who puts herself there. It also means we in the audience are less likely to be seduced.

Bug
MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater through February 22
Running time: 1 hour and 55 minutes, including intermission.
Tickets: $99 – $281
Written by Tracy Letts
Directed by David Cromer
Scenic Design by Takeshi Kata, Costume Design by Sarah Laux, Lighting Design by Heather Gilbert, Sound Design by Josh Schmidt, and Hair & Make-up design isby J. Jared Janas. Dialect & Vocal Coach Gigi Buffington. Intimacy Coordinator and Fight Director isMarcus Watson.
Cast: Carrie Coon as Agnes White, Namir Smallwood as Peter Evans, Randall Arney as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom as R.C., and Steve Key as Jerry Goss.