Photo credit: Ross E Zentner
Renaissance Theaterworks' 'Sex with Strangers'
“How do I make myself hard enough to withstand the bad, but soft enough to be the writer I want to be?” Frustrated 40ish novelist and professor Olivia asks this question in Laura Eason’s sizzling two-hand Sex with Strangers, which Renaissance Theaterworks has wisely chosen as its 25th season opener. This highly realistic, moving and frequently uproarious modern drama gets at the meat of a central question for our modern age: How do we balance professional ambition with the human need to connect in intimate relationships? Need these two domains really be in perpetual competition, or might they in fact feed and even underpin one another?
Eason’s script is magnificent for bringing these questions to the fore—along with some very incisive reflections on what the literary world is losing in the digital age—in the form of compelling human characters. Olivia is a thoughtful and talented writer concerned she’s missed her shot at real professional acclaim and advancement, while her young paramour, Ethan, is an internet sensation and aspiring novelist driving hard for the literary respect he grossly undermined through his celebrity-making debut venture. That venture? Hooking up with a different stranger each week and writing graphically about his exploits.
In the hands of Marti Gobel and Nick Narcisi, and under Mallory Metoxen’s direction, these characters each display great depth, and the seemingly unlikely chemistry between them becomes scintillatingly plausible. Gobel’s Olivia is grounded and worldly, while simultaneously vulnerable and quietly self-serving. Narcisi’s Ethan manipulates above board, so to speak, and is an unceasingly arrogant, smoldering young man who never stops moving because of his deep desire to prove himself. The two reach breathtaking highs in a passionate dance that makes us consider what sorts of betrayal—personal or professional—deserve or are culturally allowed the greater reaction.
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Production elements support the play’s ethos well. Marisa Abbott’s lighting design, rich with romantic sidelights and well-mixed warm and cool tones, cast the play’s world in the hues of heady passion. Sarah E. Ross’ scenic design rivals her haunting, surreal work on last season’s The Drowning Girls with two fully realized interiors—a ski lodge-esque writer’s retreat and the tasteful, bookish environs of Olivia’s Chicago apartment. Also noteworthy are the show’s two intimacy specialists: Christopher Elst overseeing the actual blocking for the script’s many “sex is imminent” stage directions, and Tonia Sina consulting with the actors and director to make sure all such exchanges are safe and mutually respectful.
Insightful and entertaining all around, Sex with Strangers is a fantastic choice for mature audiences. Renaissance has hit the nail on the head yet again in its ongoing mission to create “theater by women for everyone.”
Through Nov. 12 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com.
