[NEohioPAL] Review of "C**K" at Dobama Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

Dobama offers KO production about the sweet science of sexuality

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Morning Journal, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 11/01/13

 

 

What determines whether we are attracted to men or to women?  Some would argue that it is our sexual orientation as prescribed by biology.  Others would argue that it is our sexual identity as influenced by whoever's welcoming arms and supportive community we fall into first.  

 

Both arguments are made in Dobama Theatre's current production of "C**K," but the conclusions are as ambivalent as the main character's sexuality. 

 

John's phallus has no True North, pointing instead toward his long-term boyfriend and then gravitating toward the magnetic pull of a woman's womb.  When push comes to shove, which it does at the end of this 90-minute one-act play, John must choose one lover over the other.  But he cannot decide between comfort and chromosomes.  

 

Mike Bartlett's play, which opened in London in 2009 and played off-Broadway in 2012, is a wonderfully abstract piece of theater.  Everything about it is stripped down to the bare essentials, leaving the audience's imagination and predispositions to fill in the gaps, paste together the pieces, and draw its own conclusions.

 

The stage is bare save for a dedicated square space with a chair at each corner.  The original production created a stylized arena for a metaphorical, back-alley cockfight.  Director Corey Atkins decided to turn the Dobama theater space into a boxing ring where the sweet science of sexuality is put on display.   

 

The play unfolds in a series of short scenes - boxing rounds - where each character comes out fighting and goes toe to toe before retreating to a respective corner.

 

The dialogue is a series of crisp jabs, sharp and highly targeted counterpunches, and emotionally devastating roundhouses.  Each hurtful, explicit encounter is intended to wear down the opponent before taking him/her out for good with a late-round haymaker.

 

The play so thoroughly deconstructs the lives of these people that the only things left standing on stage are their sexual desires and their arguments for whether desire trumps DNA.  

 

Gone are their names; the woman is W, the man is M, and M's father, who shows up late in the play in a wickedly awkward, highly confrontational dinner party, is referred to as F.  There are no costume changes. No props.  No set pieces.

 

Gone is all the exposition, back story and context, as the audience is brought into conversations midway through and often in mid-sentence.  

 

Even the characters' erotic sexual encounters are physically abstract, fully-clothed, purely verbal affairs. 

 

Such abridged storytelling places all the pressure on the storytellers to make good.  The actors, director, and designers are brilliant in this production.

 

Each performer slips seamlessly into a British accent, a clearly defined and intriguing character, and the playwright's passive-aggressive wordplay.  They give as well as they take, listening as intensely and as earnestly as they speak.  

 

Andrew Gombas' John is a little boy lost.  He manages to remain endearing despite his pathetic - even pathological -- indecisiveness about his sexuality and inability to act on his own behalf.  He walks the tightrope of ambiguity with perfect balance and no shortage of charm, and ends the play concussed and immobile from too many blows taken to the head and heart. 

 

Drew Kopas, as cocksure and narcissistic M, answers the opening bell swinging.  He only lets up toward the end when he is emotionally spent, beaten, and astoundingly vulnerable.  Kopas offers a master class in emotional range and depth in this superb performance.

 

So too does Lara Knox.  Her character could easily come across as manipulative and unlikable, but her W is anything but.  The same is true for Bob Keefe as F, who is brought on to bolster M's claim on John and undermine all of W's arguments for rightful possession of John's affections.

 

Director Atkins makes shrewd use of the ring's limited space, managing to create purposeful movement that caters to the sightlines of surrounding audience members while remaining true to the natural rhythms and verbal sparring established by the playwright.  He also finds the humor amidst the bursts of dialogue and pushes the excruciatingly long silences between characters to the very brink of human endurance.  

 

All this is facilitated by Marcus Dana's dramatic lighting and Richard Ingraham's sound design. 

 

In the final scene, one of the bloodied combatants is the victor but the play ends with the feeling of an unsatisfying draw - an indecision.  Although haymakers are thrown, none seem to land or land hard enough to determine what the playwright is saying about our sexuality. 

 

This makes for a thought-provoking but infuriating evening of theater.

 

"C**K" runs through November 23 at Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights. For tickets, which range from $10 to $26, call 216-932-3396 or visit www.dobama.org.
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