The 2009-10 Studio season at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis opens with a burst of heady theatrical pleasure, courtesy of playwright Bob Clyman and his drama "Secret Order."

Brainy, taut and psychologically complex, the production reaffirms the Studio's stature as the most stimulating theater in town.

"Secret Order" centers on a young scientist, William Shumway (Todd Lawson), who seems to be on the verge of a cure for cancer. Leaving his comfortable university lab, he accepts an offer from a glamorous research institute headed by a wily administrator (Richmond Hoxie) who lusts for a Nobel Prize, even by association. A shrewd veteran scientist (Stan Lachow) and a gifted student (Angela Lin) are absorbed in Shumway's work, too.

But competing pressures - to publish, to win grants, to please his superiors, to make a huge discovery - push Shumway out of his depth. There's no place at the institute for pure science (let alone cancer patients). Maybe there's really no such thing.

The four actors and director Risa Brainin make the science clear enough and the interpersonal relationships crystalline. Lawson and Lin conduct one purely clinical exchange that mounts so steadily in its rhythms, they might as well be playing "Bolero."

Or watch Hoxie's face when he takes his protege to buy a good suit; that paternal beam reveals the deeper levels of their relationship, for good and for ill, and virtually predicts what lies ahead.

And Lachow's Saul Roth is so mannered, from the tips of his gesticulating fingers to the ends of his flowing gray hair, that you can't read him at all. That's the point. Despite the clean lines and crisp lighting that designer Mark Wilson provides, "Secret Order" keeps its secrets. Motives and behavior are as murky as a complicated experiment.

Clyman crafts the dialogue so subtly - and it's so well performed by these actors, even when they need a tighter grip on their lines - that it's impossible to label anyone as good or bad, honest or dishonest. They're both.

As a result "Secret Order, " which takes place in a milieu that's foreign to most of us, ends up recognizable and real. It's not about truth in science. It's about truth, period, and the daunting effort to grasp it. There's no lab stain to prove if it's there or not.