SEX WITH STRANGERS
SEX WITH STRANGERS, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, 24 September-24 November 2012. Photos by Brett Boardman - Jacqueline McKenzie and Ryan Corr.
This is an unexpected and winsome rom-com about the love of writing and words, the love of romance as last resort, the romance of love at first sight; and the effect of words on love, and vice versa. It's also about trust and betrayal and how these two are not always what they might appear to be. There are also some darker layers and they're not chocolate cake - one or two are quite bitter.
It's winter in the US north-east at a rural writers' retreat. On an elegant and social clue-strewn set by Tracy Grant Lord (lighting Matthew Marshall), quotes from famous writers - Plath, de Beauvoir, Sartre, Kerouac and so on - are projected onto a soulful backdrop of silhouetted bare trees. They're used to underline or anticipate what's happening on stage and also as neat scene breaks. One is particularly apposite and - if you've seen the recent TV biopic Hemingway and Gellhorn - laden with irony.
Ernest Hemingway apparently once said, "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." Whether this was before or after he snuck in bumped Martha Gellhorn from her gig with Atlantic Monthly isn't clear, but in this context it seems less heroic than it sounds and also says something about the funny business that goes on between men and women. (He adored her but apparently thought nothing of cheating her out of her job.) This theme is also obliquely explored in Sex With Strangers, by American playwright Laura Eason and first staged by Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2010.
Olivia (Jacqueline McKenzie) is a novelist who's retreated from the critical failure of her first book into the safe obscurity of the teacher's life. She has something of the steely yet fragile daffiness of Diane Keaton in Annie Hall as she flutters her hands and hyper-ventilates at the mere thought of putting herself once again in the way of rejection, disdain and absolutely no sales. Nevertheless, she has tucked herself away at a writers' retreat to work on the manuscript of her second novel; something unexpected lies dormant within her prim facade as she approaches 40.
Enter Ethan (Ryan Corr) stage left, scattering snow and outdoor clothing. He's noisily, energetically, game-changingly youthful and sexual. Olivia is appalled. He too is a writer, but his graphic online blog-cum-novel Sex With Strangers is a sensation. Olivia is appalled and amused to discover it has been on the New York Times bestseller list for three years. It has all the style and depth of a badly-composed shopping list as Ethan catalogues his year of bedding one strange woman per week. It's a bit Julie and Julia (the blog where young blogger Julie Powell cooks her way through Julia Child) except this is all rooting rather than recipes.
A PhD in creative writing isn't necessary to work out that Ethan and Olivia will fall into bed within minutes of their first argument about writing and technology. She is perversely Emily Dickinson when it comes to commercial fame and success; Ethan is all for grabbing the digital opportunities coming his way with both hands and seeing where they take him. This odd couple works well because of - rather than despite - their many and comical differences. The sexual and cultural clashes are a given in this comedy genre and Eason and director Jocelyn Moorhouse pace and place it all beautifully.
As the lovers-turned-antagonists, McKenzie and Corr ignite instant chemistry as the mismatched lovers and they maintain a deliciously snappy and well-choreographed interplay between themselves and their situation. The second half and its twists and conclusion may or may not be a series of surprises, depending how worldly-wise or cynical you happen to be. Catching up with the production four weeks into its run, it is tight and sophisticated; sharp and tender and disarmingly human.
Sex With Strangers is also truthful in its depiction of the ambivalence that can be felt about success, notoriety, love and wi-fi - they might drive you crazy but if they're taken away, it's a different kind of craziness. The audience of real people (ie, not first-nighters) chuckled, gasped and groaned as Olivia and Ethan hit various painfully recognisable relationship speed bumps. The play is charming and, as performed by McKenzie and Corr, totally beguiling.
