“The Moors” is a dark comedy that satirizes Gothic fiction and includes a same sex outlook.

The Between the Lines Theatre production was directed by Jason Roth.

The production concluded Sept. 15.

In the very first moment of the play, a crow crashes into a window, leaving black feathers behind, which is a traditional sign of change and bad tidings.

The tidings are really bad in this one hour and 30-minute play by Jen Silverman, which premiered in New Haven, Conn., in 2016. There is violence, madness and psychological conflict, as well as philosophical musing and some comedy. And two love stories, one of which involves a dog and a moor-hen.

The story begins with the often-used plot point of a governess coming to work at an estate on the isolated English moors. Emilie (Gianna Neal) has come to take on that position. When she arrives, she is not introduced to the child she has been hired to care for, nor is she allowed to meet the master of the house who employed her sight unseen after a long and very warm correspondence.

Instead, she meets the cold Agatha (Julia Urich), her sister Huldey (Darah Donaher), the maid (Rachel Williams), and the mastiff (Heath Mensher). Huldey has a tenuous grip on reality, and the maid’s name changes depending on what function she is doing in the house.

There is a subplot with the mastiff and an injured moor-hen. The mastiff, who cannot be understood by the humans, is given to poetic musings. His loneliness is eased when he meets the moor-hen (Kate Pistone). The two beings, normally natural enemies, form a bond.

The cast handles the heavy drama and complicated interactions well. Agatha’s coldness and Emilie’s innocence gradually change, while Huldey and the maid Marjory express increasingly extreme feelings. There does not seem to be a lot of laughs, but it is probably difficult to get humor from a satire based on the letters of Charlotte Bronte.

The stage is cleverly set up by being equally divided between a drawing room set and a recreation of the mysterious moors, complete with fog. There are a few anachronistic touches, like the use of a microphone, that add to the increasing absurdity.

If you are a fan of Victorian fiction, and even if you are not, this is an absorbing play about love, the desire for fame, isolation, and identity. And madness. Always madness.

“The Moors,” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6, 7, 12, 13; 2 p.m. Sept. 8; 2, 6 p.m. Sept. 15, Between the Lines Studio Theatre, 725 N. 15th St., Allentown. https://betweenthelinestheatre.com/