All those hordes of scary-looking, groggy-eyed graduate playwriting and directing students know Aristotle’s Poetics like the back of their hands. It is, after all, the premier foundational treatise for the creation of theater, containing more thoroughly argued rules and regulations than the latest set of free-speech guidelines issued by the FCC. And as such, it’s not exactly the kind of escapist read you’d want to take with you to the beach—or on the bus ride. Which is why the whole idea of Poetics being transformed into a work of theater sounds like a more powerful sleeping pill than Ambien.

But Target Margin Theater has a history of creating eye-opening action from the most unlikely source material, and that’s why actor/playwright/director David Greenspan’s The Argument, a solo play derived from Poetics, is such a total curiosity.

Given its Ancient Greek flavoring, The Argument is also something of an allusion to the special—what shall we call it?—relationship that the older men in Ancient Greece typically had with their eager and willing young protégés.

The Argument is running in tandem with an “artful and loose” adaptation of another treatise that doesn’t seem too dramatic—Plato’s Symposium. Retitled Dinner Party, the piece examines love from every conceivable angle, proving that when it comes to Plato, relationships between people, both then and now, tend to be anything but platonic. 

Through June 30. The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-255-5793; Thurs.-Sat. 7:30, $15.