No one can question the dedication or commitment of the actors and stage crew in “Detroit.” Not when they persist through two hours of rain and a power failure that claimed all the stage and general area lighting.

Summer Circle Theater, an outdoor theater at Michigan State University, advertises that they will perform rain or shine, and the opening night of “Detroit” was an example of the wetter side of their shows.

Lisa D’Amour’s “Detroit” was nominated for a Pulitzer for its look at neighbors, friendships, hope for rebuilding a new life and the losses that can either keep us from meeting our dreams or that clear the stage so that new dreams are possible. It also gives a serious examination of what happens to people when all their expectations are lost because of such things as the lack of jobs, the disappearance of neighborhoods and neighbors, and the loss of the middle class as it was once known in America.

On opening night, they also had to deal with the loss of dry stages and lights.

The rain began in the middle of the first act and kept up pretty steady for the rest of the evening. During intermission, the stage crew valiantly tried to remove the biggest puddles from the stage, even as the rain steadily replaced all the water they removed.

Toward the end of the second act, the lights failed, casting the stage and the whole area into darkness. Director Mark Colson tried to call the show, but the actors, who were in the middle of their climactic scene when the stage manager called ‘hold,’ refused to quit and were cheered on by their sopping audience who hadn’t held out this long in the rain just to miss the ending.

So the stage crew came and surrounded the stage on their knees in the wet grass and shone cell phone flashlights onto the actors. Eventually, someone drove a vehicle around to the back of the audience where the concessions stand was and shone headlights onto the stage.

The audience applauded their stamina as much as their performances when it came time for the curtain call.

“Detroit” is a demanding show to perform even without the added hazards of rain, darkness and an actress who had lost her voice for the two days prior to opening. (She was miked, so the audience could still hear her). It is a show with a great deal of physicality and demanding vocal requirements.

Ben (played by Andrew Head) and Mary (Briana Buckley) are a couple right on the edge of middle class, a status threatened by the loss of Ben’s job as a loan officer. They’ve invited over their new neighbors who have moved into an abandoned house – Kenny (Beau Bielski) and Sharon (Jenna Jo Pawlicki). It is soon revealed that Kenny and Sharon were both recently in rehab together, and that they are trying to stay clean from their addictions to alcohol and drugs.

Each bring their own struggles to the stage, which are revealed throughout the course of several scenes as the couples grow closer to each other.

Head plays the almost stuffy ex-loan officer who is trying to start anew running his own business as a financial consultant. He’s eager to please and has some beautifully tender moments with his wife, where he shows his devotion to her despite her own struggles and sharp edges. Buckley gives us a prickly Mary who wants to fulfill the role of a middle class American neighbor, but finds things falling apart around her, and she frequently escapes to drink in an effort to cope. She deftly handles the swings in mood and energy, being equally skilled in the high moments as she is in the low, intentionally awkward ones.

Bielski and Pawlicki bring a sizzling energy and a lovely contrast with their relationship. They are clearly in their lot together, and are firm supporters of one another in their wildly unconventional relationship and living situation. Bielski starts out on the quiet side, only letting his real self out in short bursts until the final explosive climax. Pawlicki is a tight bundle of energy who is always on edge emotionally.

Director Colson keeps the timing taut with this show. He stretches out moments of awkwardness just long enough for the audience to feel the discomfort and to squirm along with the characters. The blocking is energetic, with connections building in tension until they overflow, unable to be held back any longer.

Daniel Huston’s scene design was especially impressive for it being able to meet the script’s demands, though its crowning achievement was lost in the dark on opening night.

Michael Hayes makes a late-in-the-show appearance and helps to underline the theme with his monologue about what the neighborhood used to be like. His is a calm, slower character who seeks to provide some sort of catharsis. Compared to the preceding scene, D’Amour wrote that one a little too long, seeking to explain too much that didn’t need explaining.

“Detroit” is an intense show that leaves most of its questions unanswered. There are no answers yet to what our changing society is going to do to the people in it. It is perhaps fitting that the show ended in the dark rain with only a few beams of light, for it is about the level of hope that D’Amour leaves us with.