Good direction can't overcome abundant millennial navel-gazing
Review by Catey Sullivan
Be forewarned: Despite the title, you won't leave The Mystery of Love and Sex knowing any more about the titular issues than you did going in. Bathsheba Doran's drama isn't a probe into the primal profundities of the title but the story of two millennials and their sexual evolution. From undergrad dorm room to backyard wedding ceremony, Doran follows best friends Charlotte and Jonny as they test the limits of a platonic friendship
Director Marti Lyons deploys a deft hand with The Mystery of Love and Sex . She keeps the pacing taut and elegantly navigates the thin line between humor and pathos. What she can't overcome is the over-abundance of millennial naval-gazing that makes up the bulk of the play.
In Charlotte (Hayley Burgess) and Jonny (Travis Turner), Doran has two characters who are defined by their self-absorption. Watching them twist themselves into knots over how to define their relationship and their sexual proclivities is akin to watching an episode of "Girls" - It's occasionally funny, but the blinkered, insular world of characters unable to look beyond themselves becomes grating quickly. Midway through, you might well want to tell Charlotte and Jonny to get out of their own heads and get over themselves.
Charlotte's parents Howard (Keith Kupferer usually, understudy Mark David Kaplan at the performance I saw) and Lucinda (Lia Mortensen) open up the drama a bit. Howard is a mystery writer, Lucinda a once-and-forever southern belle. Through them, Doran gives a glimpse of the forces that shaped Charlotte and Jonny, who spent much of his childhood with Charlotte's family. But The Mystery of Love and Sex is first and last about Charlotte and Jonny - and neither of them is intriguing enough to carry a two-hour drama.
You don't need to look further than Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune to know that sexual character studies can make for compelling, universally appealing dramas. That doesn't happen here because Charlotte and Jonny don't have anything especially profound or original to say to each other or to Howard and Lucinda.
There are places where Doran's script shows glimmers of potential. Jonny is black and Charlotte is white. Charlotte's father Howard's is a mystery writer who initially seems like a tolerant, liberal ally with an inclusive, open-minded attitude toward minorities. Howard's novels, however, reveal something quite different about their author. When Jonny confronts Howard about the rampant racism, sexism and homophobia in his mysteries, The Mystery of Love and Sex becomes explosively effective. The scene between the two is a scorcher, and it marks Turner as an actor with a potentially huge career ahead of him.
It also makes you wish that Doran had focused more on bigotry and less on millennial sex. For all the drama Charlotte and Jonny bring to the table, there's little that makes Doran's drama compelling.
The Mystery of Love and Sex continues through July 2nd at Writers's Gillian Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe (map), with performances Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Wednesdays 3pm & 7:30pm, Thursdays-Fridays 7:30pm, 3pm & 7:30pm, Sundays 2pm & 6pm. Tickets are $35-$80, and are available by phone (847-242-6000) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com ). More information at WritersTheatre.org. (Running time: 2 hours, includes an intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
behind the scenes
Tags: 17-0419, Andrew Boyce, Andrew Hansen, Bathsheba Doran, Chicago Theater, Geoff Button, Gillian Theatre, Hayley Burgess, Janelle Boudreau, Jerry Miller, Keith Kupferer, Lia Mortensen, Mallory Jane Bass, Mark David Kaplan, Marti Lyons, Michael Brosilow, Paul Toben, post, Rebecca Adelsheim, Rebecca Pechter, Samantha C. Jones, Travis Turner, Tyrone Phillips, Writers' Theatre
Category: 2017 Reviews, Catey Sullivan, Gillian Theatre, Video, Writers' Theatre, YouTube
