Theater Review / Sex with strangers

A first rate production.

By Joanna Brady

You don’t realize what a difference ten years makes in our modern cybernetic zeitgeist until you see Sex with Strangers, now playing at the Waterfront. And yes, despite the titillating title, there is a plot; an intriguing one.

In the first act, a blizzard is howling outside a cozy bed and breakfast in Michigan. The owner is out, but a guest, Olivia, who is a published writer of about 35—ill-treated by her agent, publisher, and reviewers—has taken refuge there to work on a second book in peace and quiet. Her evening is disrupted when a late-comer guest named Ethan arrives. He’s a young man, no more than 25—some would call him a callow youth—whom Olivia correctly judges to be raw, rude, and crude.

But when she learns that he has 500,000 followers on his blog, that he is developing an app to sell E-books, has written 2 blockbuster non-fiction best sellers, and that a movie is being made about him, her interest is peaked. Over wine by the fire, they eventually discover a mutual chemistry, and the inevitable happens. And keeps on happening at the end of nearly every scene!

One of Ethan’s books is titled Sex With Strangers, hence the provenance of the play’s title.

If you don’t have a good script you have nothing, and I can’t say enough about the writing in this play. It was created by Laura Eason, who wrote and produced House of Cards for Netflix for 4 years. Sex with Strangers was one of the most produced plays in the U.S. in 2015 – 2017. Eason’s characters are well-developed. The first act is hip, snappy, and it’s very funny. Director Patrick New has orchestrated the pace of the dialogue to suit the language with skill and aplomb.

The story takes a complex, more dramatic turn in the second act, when the play shifts to more substantive issues and the ten years that separate the pair show up in their uncompromising attitudes towards publishing and marketing their work. For Ethan, nothing is real. His phone is his life-line and he lives in a sphere where anything of consequence is on-line. Characters in his non-fiction books aren’t real, reviews aren’t real. Only blog followers and the sales they generate are real. E-books are what matter. He’s a true child of his time. Olivia’s world view is different. She is nostalgic for a time when people played CDs, loved the heft and feel—even the smell—of hard copy books. A time when there was some truth in reviews, and people depended on entertainment beyond an I-phone.

The second act also enlightens us on the state of publishing today where novels tend to be commercial rather than literary. It’s an industry which has been changed radically even in the past 5 or 6 years by the proliferation of E-books and self-publishing. Techies who can maneuver the social media and navigate cyberspace with blogs and followers are the winners in the best-seller game. For Ethan, re-inventing his true self as a brand with a brilliant platform is what’s important. This concept is nothing short of bewildering to Olivia. The ten years that separate the two make them chasms apart.

Both of the well cast actors turn in polished, professional performances. Melanie Keller is excellent as Olivia, the reclusive school teacher beaten down by the publishing system. Tim Torre is terrific as the glib, fast-talking admirer of her work who chooses an unorthodox route to helping her battle back, only to have it backfire.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll leave the problematic core of the play and the dénouement for you to discover, but I for one, loved this play.

Michael Boyer has designed two terrific sets, transforming a quaint rural lodge in Michigan to a sleek contemporary Chicago apartment. Carmen Rodriguez provided the perfectly harmonizing props for each.

Highly recommended.

Play runs April ll through 27. All performances are at 8 p.m. For additional information as well as tickets, call 305- 294-5015 or visit waterfrontplayhouse.org

(Joanna Brady is a local writer, author of the historical Key West novel, The Woman at the Light, published by St. Martin’s Press)

 

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