Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes
Minetta Lane Theatre
New York, NY
New York, NY
What I'm seeing lately!
A celebrated novelist and professor on the verge of his third divorce is drawn into a dangerous relationship with a nineteen-year-old star student.
I thought this was a fairly good two-hander but—I don’t like being a hater—it’s hard for it to work with such a weak link. The third-person narrator style worked really well for me even from the beginning as it situates John’s rationalizations as alternately a university lecture and a work of seeming autofiction, both of which very well suit his character. Good harmony of form and function. I think that it’s an achievement in intimacy coordination (and the writing striking a pretty delicate balance) to tell this story earnestly on stage while keeping everyone involved comfortable—presumptive, maybe, but they came back for a second run—and making it sufficiently creepy but not grossly so (i.e. exit the theater)