THEATER REVIEW: "The Artist Needs a Wife" ★★1/2 Through Feb. 14 at the Side Project Theatre, 1439 W. Jarvis St.; Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes; Tickets: $18 at 773-973-2150 or www.thesideproject.net 

In Jesse Weaver's intense, intriguing and deeply introspective new play, "The Artist Needs a Wife," now up at the intimate Side Project space in Rogers Park, the titular painter doesn't so much need a spouse as a muse.

In his weird basement apartment, this hairy and perennially blocked artist (who goes by the name of Freud) finds himself choosing between two female possibilities for the job. There is Whore (subtle character names abound in this play) an aggressive, rough-hewn, all-American woman of the streets. The kind of woman you'd find in certain Chicago bars. And then there is beautiful Katja, apparently a mail-order bride from Eastern Europe.

Ah, Europe! Where art is appreciated and playwrights are beautiful.

Whenever you see a painter on a stage, it's a pretty clear signal that the playwright is about to start talking about his profession and himself. As in John Logan's superb "Red," which I recently saw in London, the solo artist has become a metaphor of choice for the internal anguish felt by the scribbler of scripts.

Given that Weaver recently re-located from Chicago to Dublin (where an earlier version of this play premiered), it's pretty clear that "The Artist Needs a Wife" is really about Weaver being caught between two cities—the real "canvas of American raw" for which he feels a natural affinity and the new creative inspiration afforded by a gentler city located where playwrights stand a better chance of being rescued to a grant-funded island. Clearly, he can’t decide where he or his art needs to be.

If, like me, you're interested in Chicago writers—and let me say that Weaver is one with considerable promise—this is an interesting if insular premise. Even though he buries it in a deeply metaphoric and overly indulgent universe that does not entirely hold together, Weaver probes some interesting issues about playwrights and place, European stereotypes of Chicago and Europe's own cultural complexities and deconstruction. Maybe relationships, too.