The year is 1976, and in Chicago a liberal-minded man is contemplating the Equal Rights Amendment.
“Equal Rights Amendment? I’ll give you the fucking Equal Rights Amendment. Nobody ever wrote me no fucking amendments. … We got baby seals dying in Alaska and we’re writing amendments for broads? I mean, I’m a big fan of society…but this bites the big one.”
Meet Bernard (Rene Wachner-Solomon ’07), office drone and womanizer extroardinaire, who makes it his mission to teach his less-experienced colleague Danny (Seth Cohen ’07) the facts of life. As Bernard explains, women are strange. Sometimes during sex, they bark like dogs. If things are going really well, they may ask you to set their room on fire or chain them to a radiator while they “come like a choo-choo.” Whatever happens, always remember that no matter how much you may think you like a girl, she’s probably not worth getting serious about. Sex is just sex. And anyway, you can never tell where these liberated females have been.
The relatively sensitive Danny is not so sure. Not yet ready to write off a deeper connection with the opposite sex, he begins a relationship with the artistic Deborah (Jessica Posner ’09), whom he’d been scoping at the local cafe. Like Danny, Deborah has a best friend who warns her against getting too involved—in her case, Joan (Emily Dreyfuss ’06)—but is foolish enough to think this time it just might work. Alas, the course of true love ne’er did run smooth, and we watch as nights of excited intellectual and sexual exploration become days of insults and argument. Deborah moves out, and Danny and Bernard go back to sizing up tits and ass.
This is one way to summarize Mamet’s 1974 “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” which went up November 10-12 in the ’92 Theater, directed by Halley Feiffer ’07. Another would be to explain the relatively plotless Sexual Perversity as an honest (if overly crude) look at insecurity, and the ways in which feeling threatened—especially emotionally—so often leads people to needlessly hurt each other.
Twenty-somethings Bernard, Danny, Deborah and Joan all feel insecure, but find different ways to express it. The misogynist Bernard calls women “cunts” and “cockteasers,” and backs away from the possibility of real relationships altogether. Danny is willing to set himself up for rejection but is quick to retreat and blame Deborah when their romance sours. For her part, Deborah can’t seem to reconcile her desire to be a ‘liberated feminist’ with a desire to cook for her man. She is willing to take the blame for her relationship’s failure, but still hopes that true love is out there. Elementary school teacher Joan thinks this idea is patently ridiculous, but remains unsure where this philosophy leaves her.
Ultimately “Sexual Perversity” is a character-driven piece, and the cast did a great job. With his swagger, macho accent, and pointed use of his hands (channeling Al Pacino in “Scarface,” anyone?), Wachner-Solomon turned in a particularly excellent performance. Never backing down from the crudeness of the text, he made us laugh hysterically while not ignoring the nuances that round out his character and help make him likabl—which is no easy feat. Dreyfuss’s Joan was similarly impressive. A confident actor, Dreyfuss relayed Joan’s insecurities while looking totally comfortable onstage. The monologue in which she chastises two students for “playing doctor” stands out for the ease with which she singularly made the presence of two small children believable.
Ironically, successfully playing the relatively more insecure Danny and Deborah requires even greater assurance as an actor. Cohen and Posner were both solid (especially as their relationship devolved into one long screaming match), but weren’t able to hit all the textual twists and turns. This is something a longer rehearsal process would likely have helped, and would have made the ensemble stronger overall.
Kudos to set designer Nick Benacerraf ’08, who turned the ’92 into a beautiful one-stop office, bedroom, living room, and bar using just a few set pieces. The absence of set changes reinforced the abruptness of the dialogue, and enabled the production’s almost filmic fast pace.
Finally, major kudos to first-time director Feiffer. In a scant three weeks she pulled together a well-oiled production that revealed a real clarity of vision. And her unusual choice of Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity” showed us that in spite of ourselves, a play about relationships written in 1974 still has the power to shock.
SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO Directed by Halley Feiffer ’07. Stage Manager Francie Jones ’08. Lighting Designer David Haan ’06. Sound Designer Nikhil Melnechuk ’07. Set Designer Nick Benacerraf ’08. With Rene Wachner-Solomon ’07 (BERNARD), Seth Cohen ’07 (DANNY), Jessica Posner ’09 (DEBORAH), and Emily Dreyfuss ’06 (JOAN).
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