Trust and discretion: that’s what Grant expects of Abigail in playwright Donna Hoke’s play Brilliant Works of Art, produced by Bellissima Productions and onstage in the Alleyway Theatre Cabaret. But the two words – and the practices they describe – aren’t always complementary, are they?

Abigail, played by Zoe Gonez in her professional stage debut, is a struggling student with lofty dreams of becoming an attorney, and she has plenty of bills to pay. She meets Grant Parrish (Greg Howze) an older man of means who enjoys the company of young women who he can, ahem, help, nurture, and…finance for a…well, let’s call it a value exchange. Abigail makes it clear she doesn’t want to be treated like a prostitute and Grant is resolute in his need for discretion (and his disdain for tattoos), yet there is a spark of attraction. So this arrangement – in its most pragmatic sense – will suit them just fine, won’t it? After all, Grant’s wife and family and Abigail’s roommate/boyfriend on the bubble don’t need to know about this…business transaction. Could it also make love happen?

Hoke’s story is full of emotion and dilemma, and it’s interesting to watch it all play out. Yes, it’s an infidelity story, but there’s something altruistic about it. Hoke’s strong character development and deft storytelling create vivid images of people and situations which are charming and flawed and conflicted and determined to evolve…if only they could.

Director Sabrina Kahwaty made fine choices with her casting, Howze is provocative as Grant, with his soft-like-velvet seductive voice (which was chilling and menacing last season in Road Less Traveled’s The Light Fantastic where he was nominated for Best Actor in a Play). He’s all smooth sophistication. Abigail doesn’t quite get some of his pop culture asides, and is flummoxed when he produces a crisp linen handkerchief at dinner. His knowledge of wine, dinner that isn’t ramen, and the finer things are all revelations to her. Gonez does fine work as Zoe: her character could have been brash and crass, thankfully Hoke didn’t write her role to be a cliché. Gonez plays to her character’s vulnerability and the chemistry she has with her scene partners makes that naivete work. Johnny Barden is James, the boyfriend who is struggling to find a breakthrough with his art, is the quintessential tormented artist in search of his muse and path to success.

It’s an interesting construct for a story: think of the movie Pretty Woman with a short-term purpose. Hoke creates a real warmth for and between her characters which makes them tremendously likeable, even when they are making questionable choices.

The overall production is smart and stage movements aren’t wasted: the trio also swaps out and transforms the bare bones set pieces to suggest scene changes from restaurant to hotel suite to apartments. It works in the space and flow of Hoke’s story. There are plenty of visual and script details, too, like Abigail’s first entrance has her unwrapping a Sugar Daddy sucker while wearing a demure floral dress. It’s a moment of innocence shrouded in the ironic. Hoke’s signature phrasing and sparks of humor balance the serious side of love and trust and fidelity and lack thereof.

Brilliant Works of Art runs two hours with a 15-minute intermission, until Feb. 15. Find tickets and details (including the program which is sadly not distributed on site) at bellissimaproductions.com.