"Intense" is the word that best describes No One Is Forgotten, now onstage at Urbanite Theatre in its Florida premiere.

This two-hander play by Winter Miller is in your face from the outset. Centered on two women alone in a grim and anonymous cell—in what part of the world, we don’t know—Urbanite’s production immediately tosses us into their predicament, up close and personal. Indeed, those seated in the front row are mere inches from the actors, who are performing at a high energy level in a very physical play that demands a lot from them, and, perhaps from us.

At first, we don’t know the names of the two characters. We merely watch them doing stretches and jumping jacks, playing word games and trying in general to keep their minds and bodies in the best shape possible given their close confinement. In the cell, only a bucket in the corner and occasional arrivals of scanty bowls of rice and a water bottle through a slit in the door offer any kinds of provisions at all for the prisoners. So they must rely on each other totally for whatever comfort they can.

Eventually, we learn a bit more about the women. The elder, Beng (Casey Wortmann), is apparently a pretty high-flying journalist; the younger, Lali (Dekyi Rongé), an aid worker who set out to help the world. How long have they been here? How long can they stand it? What do their loved ones outside know about their situation? We don’t know the answers to these questions, and for the most part, they don’t either.

All they can do is exercise, argue, entertain each other with their fantasies about swimming or food, and refuse to surrender hope despite the inhumane treatment they are subject to. That grows harder when they are separated for a time, with Lali being taken away, and we assume from her demeanor when she returns that she has been tortured and/or violated.

From the audience viewpoint, it sounds hard to take. And there may be moments when you want to look away from what is so near you. But Miller allows some humor—essential to both the characters and us—to alleviate the darkness. In a series of short, hard-hitting scenes between blackouts (the play runs a tight 80-plus minutes with no intermission), No One Is Forgotten asks us to spare the time to think about all those people wrongfully detained in makeshift prisons around the world. To be remembered is the least they can ask.

Actors Wortmann and Rongé are totally committed to the work here, sparing no emotional or physical effort to convey their characters’ plight; one can only imagine how drained they must be after each performance. Director Summer Wallace and the playwright herself are equally committed to telling the story in an honest, compelling fashion.

If you find yourself wanting to know more about such stories, Urbanite is hosting a Backstage Series event on April 11 with speakers from Hostage US, a nonprofit that supports the families of Americans taken hostage or wrongfully detained and also supports hostages and detainees when they return home. For more about that, and for tickets to No One Is Forgotten, which continues through April 27, call (941) 321-1397 or visit urbanitetheatre.com.