Shailyn Duffy and Dylan Disch play characters who help a woman gain revenge on her abusive husband in the one-act play.

Marital abuse fueled by alcoholism very definitely isn’t funny. So director Jolene Magee has a challenge on her hands.

She will address that in “Exit, Pursued by a Bear,” a dark comedy being staged at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria. The play opens Friday and runs through June 15.

The 2012 title was written by Laura Gunderson, whose 25 plays have addressed domestic violence and gun control, many featuring real female characters from history, politics and science.

‘Terrible’

The one-act play, billed as a “revenge comedy,” features Deborah Jensen as Nan and Everett Fitz as her abusive husband Kyle.

“Nan is coming to terms with the fact that her marriage is terrible,” Magee said. “Kyle started as loving and giving, but has become abusive and we see the effect of alcohol on the relationship. She is staying because she is scared to leave.”

Into this dynamic comes Nan’s longtime gay soulmate Simon and their new friend, Sweetheart. Together they hatch a scheme to make Kyle realize his faults.

“Abuse and alcoholism are not funny things,” Magee said. “Nan and Simon decide she needs Kyle to understand, so they act out scenes from their marriage.” They tie him to a chair with duct tape to make him watch.

‘Balancing’

It is the first time directing at the Ten Fifteen for Magee, who has a stage background stretching back 20 years to her native Michigan including acting and directing in musicals, plays, dinner theater and immersive murder mysteries in New Jersey and New Orleans. She has appeared in three plays with the Astoria troupe and worked backstage on two productions.

The stage manager is Shey Lionheart. Other crew members are Julianne Bodner, Slab Slabinski, Jennifer Mikel and Mick Alderman.

Magee said her challenge at auditions was to find a cast that could perform the comedy but also portray what she labels “the hard moments” with appropriate seriousness. “The cast and crew have been absolute dreams,” she said. “It is a balancing act, because it is a very serious issue.”

‘Definite’

Jensen recently appeared in the Ten Fifteen production of “Bartow” and was assistant director for “Macbeth,” in which Magee portrayed four characters. Simon is played by Dylan Disch, seen with Magee in the troupe’s December show “Almost, Maine.”

Sweetheart, a stripper who aspires to be an actress, is played by Shailyn Duffy. She most recently played Grandmother Tzeitel in Astoria High School’s “Fiddler on the Roof” and took charge of costumes for her senior project.

It is the first full play for Fitz, whose prior performance work has been burlesque dancing. Magee said she was impressed at his audition, though his interpretation didn’t mirror her initial approach.

“He had a real definite idea about what Kyle was going to look like,” she said. “He gave me something that was completely different and it was amazing. The character is so complex because he was a nice, likable guy.”

Fitz identified a key theme of the play: “The cycle of abuse continues — unless we intentionally break out of it.”

He said the play is funny but involves real-life themes. “It’s a way to humanize what we call ‘villains’ because ‘villains’ are mostly broken people. The world is not black and white. It’s not just ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys.’ We can all take responsibility for our behavior.”

‘Abusive’

Magee said she selected the play to fit the theater’s season theme of “Growing Pains.” The title comes from the stage direction which signals the grisly demise of Antigonus in Shakespeare’s comedy “The Winter’s Tale.”

During the action, one character suggests Kyle should be smeared with honey and left surrounded by thawing packs of venison to attract bears to the cabin where he is imprisoned.

The director hopes audiences will be entertained while grasping an important element. “I hope they get out of this an understanding about why women might not leave an abusive relationship right away,” Magee said. “It is easy to say, ‘Why don’t you leave?’ but there is an intense amount of manipulation that goes on in a relationship.

“I hope people have some good laughs, but learn that leaving is not as easy as it sounds.”

‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’

‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’

Written by Laura Gunderson and directed by Jolene Magee

The Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria

7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, additional shows on June 7, June 8, June 13 and June 15, 3:30 p.m. shows on Sunday and June 9, no intermission

Tickets are $25, available online at www.thetenfifteentheater.com