A chain of brutal events propels Adrienne Kennedy’s “The Ohio State Murders,” but you’d hardly know it from Evan Yionoulis’s detached, almost impersonal production now at the Duke on 42nd Street, courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience. Restraint is the hallmark of this strangely inert production, which presents its central tragedy — the titular murders — almost as a footnote.

It doesn’t help that Ms. Kennedy’s 1990 play takes the strained form of an academic lecture, illustrated by stand-ins. Suzanne (Lisa Gay Hamilton), a well-known writer, has returned to Ohio State, the alma mater she despises, from which she, one of a handful of black students, was expelled in 1950. As Suzanne recalls her youth, her younger self (Julia Pace Mitchell), sporting saddle shoes and Peter Pan blouses, moves through a series of mostly wordless tableaux, presented almost as if they were slides accompanying her crisp, professorial narration.

Unfortunately, neither Suzanne makes an especially strong impression in this muffled production. The older, wiser Suzanne, eyeglasses dangling from her lanyard, tells her story in the dry, factual cadences of a career academic. If there’s an undercurrent here, it’s one of terse anger; the strong, aloof Suzanne seems to rebuff our sympathy for the racial and personal crimes committed against her. On the rare occasions when Suzanne lets her guard down, we steal brief glimpses of the pain that lies beneath her rigid demeanor. But those glimpses are too few and too fleeting to let us in.

The younger Suzanne has few lines and no real scenes, making it hard for her to give voice to the overwhelming emotions generated by her unlucky life. Her suffering is literally muted, frequently creating a vacuum where there ought to be a soul in torment.

Unable to draw close to either character, we are left with the diversion of a zigzagging plot of murder and intrigue. Regrettably, Ms. Kennedy’s script glosses over the crux of the horrifying crime at her play’s center. The crucial scene between the young Suzanne and her white, male English professor that sets the tragedy in motion is little-explored. Likewise, the relationship between professor and student, and its destabilizing effects on both parties, remains something of a black box.

Instead, Ms. Kennedy’s characters read at length from Hardy and “King Arthur,” or deliver poetic and biting descriptions of life at a segregated Ohio State. (Ms. Kennedy herself attended the university in the same time frame, and encountered profound racism, but the parallels end there.) The action is staged in a gray library, with snow falling outside the windows, and the mood is that of an oppressive winter afternoon.

Fortunately, Ms. Hamilton has an edgy energy that cuts through the doldrums, and the supporting players (including Aleta Mitchell and Cherise Booth) perform their small roles with much-appreciated zest.

Yet Ms. Hamilton’s performance burns rather too slowly, never quite igniting. She paces the length of the classroom, rattling off the bulky narration in clipped, harsh tones meant to shield her broken heart from prying eyes. Alas, the shield works too well; in “The Ohio State Murders,” Suzanne’s cry from the heart is scarcely audible.

Until November 18 (229 W. 42nd St. between Seventh and Eighth avenues, 646-223-3010).