The 2002 Rattlestick Productions season begins Sept. 5 with an Adam Rapp play called Faster—a word the hyper-productive playwright may have taped above his writing desk. The work will officially open on Sept. 8 and run through Oct. 6.

Rapp wrote Nocturne, which was seen at New York Theatre Workshop last season. Last Minute Productions, a new Off-Broadway troupe, will present Rapp's Trueblinka, about a Southern clan of religious nuts who cite God's will in torturing each other, beginning Sept. 19. Rapp is also the author of several novels.

Darrell Larson will direct Faster, which is about two small-town scam artists who intend to sell a girl they found in the river. They wait for the prospective buyer during a heat wave which only gets hotter.

In the cast are Rob Bietzel, Mtume Gant, Fallon McDevitt-Brooking, Roy Thinnes and Chris Messina.

The design team includes sets by David Korins, lighting by Jeff Croiter, costumes by Kay Voyce and sound by Eric Shim. *

  The Rattlestick season will continue with Bliss, by Ben Bettenbender, running Oct. 30-Dec. 1. The play, about a widow who hires an ex-con to avenge the murder of her husband, will be directed by Julia Gibson (Blue Window). Ron C. Jones is in the cast. Rattlestick produced Bettenbender's Vick's Boy in 1999.

The Jan. 6-March 2 slot is filled by the latest effort from Jonathan Tolins, the man behind Twilight of the Golds and If Memory Serves. Tom Caruso directs. The work does not yet have a title.

Joe Hortua's Burning will conclude the season March 26-May 4.

The Rattlestick is located at 224 Waverly Place in the Village. Call (212) 627-2556.

—By Robert Simonson