SACRED FOOLS | DARK NIGHT SERIES 2007

REVIEWS

L.A. Weekly

With a nod to Strindberg and Dürrenmatt, J.P. Allen’s one-act is an entertaining but disquieting tale that explores the sexual pyrotechnics between genders. The two-character play opens harmlessly enough with a woman (Yvonne Fisher) motoring along on a dark road before stopping to give a stranded male traveler (Adam Bitterman) a ride. She claims to be en route to a house party, but when they arrive, the place is as quiet as a tomb (Jeff Rack’s sparse set design is appropriately creepy). It isn’t long before this puzzling, innocuous scenario turns risqué — and violent. These developments are only the beginning, however, and gradually it becomes obvious that the two share a disturbing history and that their relationship is infinitely more complex and dark than it first appears. Allen’s engaging script is filled with subtle ambiguities and unexpected turns, and its elegant yet mystifying finale puts one in mind of vintage Hitchcock. Fisher and Bitterman turn in fine performances that are excellent under Michael Franco’s skilled direction.

Beverly Hills Outlook

On a warm summer’s night, she sat in her living room staring at a photo of a man. Instantly, the photo came to life, looked back at her, reached out for her, and started kissing her… and that was the beginning of JP Allen’s new play aptly titled "Sex & Imagining," presented at The Sacred Fools Theater, one block west of Vermont off Melrose.

In the next scene she is on a dark country road in a convertible accompanied by a hitchhiker (the same man she was looking at in the photo, thereby implying a familiarity, or the possibility that he is just a sexual fantasy come to life) she had just picked up. They chat, she argues about a radio talk show and he backs down. She says that she is going to a party at the lake and insists that he join her. He is reluctant, but she cajoles him. They get to the house, but he is still uncomfortable …he wants to leave. He sounds and acts like a scared girl, as she gets more and more into to the dominant role. She wants him…and now the tables are turned again and again…and again.

As the scenes changed, it unfolded like a boxing match. He throws a punch to the jaw, then she lands an uppercut, and then the gong sounds for the next round.

Allen’s play has an animal sexuality as its theme, and an animal sexuality is present in its realization. The changing of the roles kept the drama involving and unpredictable.

Adam Bitterman is David, played with cold emotion, expressed fear, wit, and just enough animal seductiveness to make his role believable. Yvonne Fisher is Elise and she brings her own sexuality to the role of first being the seducer and then being seduced.

Michael Franco produced and directed this intriguing play by bringing the most intimate desires of his players out in the open, while keeping the audience guessing. Who is the hitchhiker? Did she know him before? Is she going to a party, or is she the party? What is actually being revealed and what is pure sexual fantasy? Humm…

The set, by Jeff G. Rack includes the frame of a convertible that is wheeled onto the stage each time that it is used. The headlights are made of buckets and you can see inner workings of the car. The other part of the set is the main room at the house with just enough furniture to move the characters from place to place.

If you would like to peek into the games people play and see good acting then this play is certainly worth the drive over to Vermont.