The FACES group at a rap session

Amaris on a night out

Carlos and Irene act a scene drawn from memory and experience

FACES performing at a high school

Most Americans have heard of domestic violence -particularly after the O. J. Simpson case- but few know this same kind of trouble can affect teen relationships.

It Ain't Love follows the young, spirited members of FACES, a gutsy improv theater company, combining acting and therapy, known for "telling it like it is". Given three months to create a show about abusive relationships, the kids, aged 15-24, start by boldly exploring their own love lives.

Intense reenactments bring the violence they've experienced and inflicted dramatically to life. Brian acts out a night when he punched his girlfriend in the face and then blamed it on being drunk. When Amares' boyfriend chokes her, it brings back memories of her father battering her mother.

Nearly everyone has had some sort of an abusive relationship, and now the guys who abused and the girls who have been abused are forced to reckon with each other, sometimes very loudly.

The process is both exhilarating and painful but the members of FACES grow in their understanding of abuse and, in the end, their new show is triumphant.