‘Red Light Winter’ Noflinching. Louisville’s ambitiousOff-Maintheater companies don’t flinch during the Humana Festival. Rather, they tend to step up with bold, provocative counter-programming. The Bard Theatre production of Adam Rapp’s “Red Light Winter,” directed by Jordan Price, is a case in point. Rapp, likewise, is not much given to flinching. There is hardly a dark facet of modern life that he hasn’t explored, sometimes on the Humana stage, including notable premieres of “Finer Noble Gases” (2002) and “The Edge of Our Bodies” (2011). “Red Light Winter” (a Pulitzer finalist in 2006) is as bleak a romantic tragedy as one could conjure. It opens in Amsterdam, where Matt (Neil Brewer), a sex-starved, struggling writer afflicted by a graphic giardia infection, is in the midst of botching his suicide attempt, when his obnoxious buddy, successful book editor Davis (Michael Mayes), arrives at his door bearing a gift: a sex worker named Christina (Leila Toba). Literary banter and a triangular relationship — two parts obsession, one part cruelty — drive the story as the locale moves from Amsterdam to New York. What may have seemed especially shocking when the play premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, now feels like well-reported, behind-the-scenes journalism. If you’re looking for redemption or catharsis, you won’t find any — except in the three, powerful, unflinching performances. • ‘Red Light Winter’ Through March 10 The Bard Theatre 1801 Bardstown Road thebardstowntheatre.org 7:30 p.m. | $16 (advance), $18 (at door)