Playwright: Ensemble
At: Neo-Futurists at Neo-Futurarium,
5153 N. Ashland
Phone: (773) 275-5255; $12
Runs through: Feb. 21
What about SEX makes it so intriguing and satisfying we would want to give up 80 minutes of our life for it? What about a motley group of five, male and female, make them appeal to us during SEX? Of course, these questions are not about the act so many of us find so delightful (or repugnant or frightening), but about the latest show by the Neo-Futurists, that sets out to explore the ins and outs of sex. Much as they did with the recent Drinking and Writing (which was created by SEX members Sean Benjamin, Chloe Johnston, and Steve Mosqueda), the creative folks at the Neo-Futurists have turned their incisive and quirky eye on one topic to explore deeply. Unlike Drinking and Writing (the show, not the act), SEX (the show not the act) isn't quite as incisive or original.
SEX makes for a mildly entertaining evening, provoking a few thoughts and eliciting a few chuckles. The ensemble (which also includes Noelle Krimm and Jay Torrance) has chosen to frame their probing into the whys, hows, whens, and wheres of SEX within the confine of a TV news program. The problem with putting SEX in this context (and granted, the ensemble does a pretty good job aping the vacuousness of TV newscasters and their slick environs) is that it removes a lot of immediacy from the topic and puts us at a distance from what otherwise might be more engaging and funny. When Sean Benjamin talks about his first time, he does it as an on-location reporter. The anecdote is somewhat amusing, but making it part of a remote newscast makes it less so. A round-table discussion about the Georgia O'Keeffe and Robert Mapplethorpe removes the teeth from the silliness of the topic (which, by the way, isn't very inspired ... Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers look like vaginas, who knew?). When sex personified appears silhouetted behind a scrim (in both male and female versions), it isn't very, well, sexy and it doesn't seem in control of the situation, as it should. But maybe that's the point. The problem with most of the humor in SEX is that it doesn't reach very far, and it's fairly uninspired. A bit about unusual things people put up their asses has been around for a long time (at least since the early '70s, when there was a long discussion of just such behavior in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask). The fact that a newscaster thinks about the dishes in her sink when she should be feeling sexy is stereotypical. Bits about masturbation and stimulation are framed and performed well, but never cross the line into the outrageous, as I know the Neo-Futurists are capable of. In order for SEX to be really good, you gotta by creative. This SEX isn't ... and it ends up being entertaining enough, yes, but not 'mind-blowing.' Yes, like the act, this SEX is good even when it's bad ... but I'm not sure that's good enough.