Morrison - renowned playwright Arthur Miller, whose heyday came in the '40s and '50s with such landmark plays as "Death of a Salesman," "All My Sons," and "The Crucible," has continued to be productive into his 80s.

At one time Miller was considered the social conscience of American Theatre. But in the past few decades his focus has turned inward to more personal, autobiographical subjects; he has set his plays in an internal landscape where the laws of logic and the physical world are no longer relevant. It's as if he once used his formidable talent to fight the evils of society, but now wrestles with his own private demons, and those of his characters.

Miller is a gutsy playwright who has never been afraid of probing social and private wounds for the sake of his art. He never takes it easy on the audience or himself. When his plays work, they strike a resounding and unforgettable emotional chord. When they don't, it's easy to feel like slapping him and telling him to stop whining, then hugging him and trying to comfort his poor, tortured soul.

All three of those responses apply to "Elegy for a Lady" and "Some Kind of Love Story," two fairly recent Miller plays produced by Thunder River Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Morrison Theatre.

In "Elegy," a distraught, guilt and grief-stricken man (Lon Winston) visits a surreal gift shop, searching for a present to give his dying mistress. Because their relationship has been based on noncommitment and easy happiness, he has been denied the privilege of sharing in her suffering. The extraordinary patient and sensitive proprietress (Valerie Haugen) serves as confidante, adviser and even surrogate, guiding the man to a kind of catharsis.

That may sound like a straight-forward enough plot , but the play is filled with such ambiguity and complexity, it's impossible to accept the story on its surface value alone. Does the gift shop exist or is the whole encounter a construct of his own tortured mind? Is the proprietress a remarkable stranger, his mistress years after the event, or a phantom memory of her? In just 30 minutes, Miller masterfully undermines our sense of reality and leaves us in a realm where what matters most is emotional truth, not mere incidents or appearances.

"Some Kind of Love Story" is an exasperating, erotically and intellectually charged one-act about self-destructive co-dependence. Tom (Lon Winston) is a hard-boiled detective and former New York cop who has been trying for five years to get an innocent man released from prison. His only lead is Angela Valerie Haugen), a needy prostitute with a multiple personality disorder and a vested interest in Tom never discovering the truth about what really happened.

Tom stands for the rational mind and the administration of justice. He will never stop until he finds the answers he seeks. Angela, a much-abused woman with a personality fractured beyond repair, has gotten caught up in a conspiracy and carries the burden of being the only one who knows the whole truth, but dares not tell it.

He tries to piece together the bits of information he painstakingly draws from her. She resists and redirects him until he tries to walk away, then she pulls him back. They are hopelessly and eternally locked together because each could be both the salvation and total undoing of the other.

Winston and Haugen are top-notch actors, bringing extraordinary focus, emotional depth and intelligence to their performances. Winston doubles as an insightful and innovative director, and Haugen shows how valuable a skilled dramaturg can be in elevating a production to a larger theatrical context.

Thunder River Theatre Company, based in the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, produces professional, challenging plays year-round in Carbondale. This is their first collaboration with the Morrison Theatre.