By Chelsea Mortensen
Love and Sex in the Digital Age, presented at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Centeris made up of two one-act plays, the drama Round^2 and the presentational piece Exposure, which are the culmination of three years of work previously seen at the 2016 and 2017 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, respectively.
The ambience walking into the Studio Theater is relaxed and the right kind of edgy with hits like “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” playing in the background as if by the perfect DJ. I would imagine this is what walking into a party where all the cool people are feels like. The audience feels very ready to laugh and think, and the production picks up that energy from the start and makes love to it. But right away, the often-unspoken vulnerability starts coming out from under the surface; punctuating the humor with the kind of pain that makes you both laugh harder and feel with greater clarity.
Natalia Noble’s charisma as Girl is one of the main engines of Round^2. Her relentless penetrating questions and unashamed identity as an aromatic pansexual, combined with the indisputable fact that she has all of the funniest lines has the audience hanging on her every word. And because she makes such a generous scene partner, it is no surprise that everyone is lining up to be with her. This makes her transformation into the insecure, pajama clad Fay in Exposure all the more breathtaking. In a presentational piece like this, she makes the audience believe that these philosophical musings are real confessions and questions happening with another person in real-time.
A.J. Neuschwander as Husband manages the beautiful balance of playing a man who is so sincere that he is both endearing and aggravating at the same time. He gives all of his attention to whoever he is with, and alhough physically he seems a little stiff at times, it works very well for his conflicted, cautious character. His cyber-Casanova Ethan is joyous. The way he revels in the flattery and irony of his character makes the audience both roar with laughter and cringe at how relatable he is. Neuschwander’s charm balances this confidence but never comes across as predatory or misogynistic. The text does briefly touch on the issue of creeps and sexism, but not a piece of it comes near Ethan.
Jillian Joy is lovely in both roles. Her journey of discovery as Wife is tender in a way that makes every character around her want to be closer to her, even take care of her. But her ultimately fearless honesty comes through her own strength and shatters her perceived fragility and the illusion of the show’s “perfect marriage”. Her arc, more than any other, personifies the grey area that this play thrives in. The text of Exposure refers to her character Lily as “effervescent” and it could not be more accurate. The whole audience practically leaned forward whenever she got closer to their side of the stage. But it was her deep, quiet devotion to protecting Noble’s vulnerable Fay that really hit me.
JayC Stoddard pulls off an understated, completely grounded Vet that pulls the audience in completely before they are even aware that it is happening. He does not smooth any rough edges or indulge in anything. The same can be said of his portrayal of Miles in Act 2. While the characters are similar, it was immediately obvious that they are grounded in completely separate places. He dives head first into the cold, cynical honesty that comes from a life of lonely toxic masculinity. And yet this only made me care about the character even more. His performance stayed with me hours after the show ended because it resonated with so much truth.
The choreography by Andrea Peterson, Lindsay Marriott, and Josh Patterson (especially in Act 2) is never repetitive and so, so specific. It makes full use of the rounded thrust stage and balances each character with the evolving conflicts of every minute. The actors live in it so effortlessly, I would suspect that this was a very collaborative and generous rehearsal process. Rather than a theatricalized Ted Talk that so many of these productions end up being, it is an articulate embodiment of vulnerable, tricky questions.
Josh Patterson’s direction is unconcerned with glamour, easy answers, cliches, or being clever for its own sake. It just wants as much of the truth as it can get at. Because of this, it dances around pitfalls and merges so much with the collaboration between writers, choreographers, and actors that it feels truly alive. The seamless music transitions carry the ambience of the play from introspection to giddiness to rock concert to heartbreak.
Of course, a special recognition must also go to Stoddard and Noble for the writing of both pieces. Their distinctive voices in both texts come out clearest in the roles they play themselves, and there is a very interesting balance in the roles written for Joy and Neuschwander. Most of all, the bravery and perception brought to the issue of how to let someone love you and how to love someone else is astonishing. When a person speaks the thoughts that have been scraping the inside of their hearts for years, there is an unmistakable way it hangs in the air and and electric relish when it makes the room laugh. That is when the truth becomes magic, and they somehow manage to trap it in a bottle.
“Love and Sex in the Digital Age” plays again at 7:30 the 28th at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center before ending its short run. Rated R for nudity, language, and sexual content, this is a play for adults with no squeamishness and a lust for the hard, messy things of life.
Utah Repertory Theatre Company Presents Love and Sex in the Digital Age by JayC Stoddard and Natalia Noble.
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Studio Theater, 138 West Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
April 25-28, 2019
Tickets: Arttix.artsaltlake.org
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