Consent *

Sex and spanking seem to be popular off-Broadway this season. First we had “Permission” at MCC; now we have “Consent” at the Black Box Theatre below Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. Roundabout apparently insisted on adding a line to the program indicating that the play is not a Roundabout production. It’s not a good sign when the landlord demands a disclaimer. “Consent” or, as I prefer to call it, “50 Shades of Gay,” tells what happens when Ron (Mark McCullough Thomas),a 40-something ex-pro footballer turned architect leaves wife and children behind in suburbia for a Manhattan loft where he hopes to live freely as a gay man. He picks up Kurt (Michael Goldstein), a hunky lad who turns out to be a Yale law student, on a subway platform and brings him home for a night of sex. When they next get together, a BDSM relationship begins. Kurt initiates Ron into the receiving end of anal sex, an act that Ron did not consciously consent to. Susie (Angela Pierce), Ron’s soon-to-be ex-wife, puts in a couple of appearances that make it clear why he is divorcing her. When Ron has trouble handling his feelings for Kurt, he turns to his big sister Emily (the wildly overacting Catherine Curtin) who does her best to comfort him. The play is crudely written. Some of the rough language seems designed merely to shock. There are plot points that don’t go anywhere and others that make no sense. The play skirts dangerously close to soft porn, providing as many occasions as possible for Ron and Kurt to cavort in their skimpy underwear. Alas, eye candy does not a play make. Scott Tedman-Jones’s loft set is quite attractive. Izzy Field’s costume budget must have been low, because underwear doesn’t cost that much. The lighting design by John Eckert and the sound design by Chad Raines both seemed overwrought. Playwright David Rhodes directed. The audience included four or five brave women. If you take the elevator at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, be sure to get off at the right floor. Otherwise, you’ll end up with “Consent” instead of “Significant Other.” Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission. (They were smart enough to remove the 10-minute intermission indicated in the program.)

The Lady from Dubuque **

(Please click on the title to see the entire review.)
When the new play Edward Albee was writing for Signature Theatre wasn't ready in time, they bravely -- or foolishly -- decided to replace it with this play, Albee's most notorious flop, which ran for 12 performances on Broadway in 1980. It is indeed a very strange play, uncomfortably blending black humor and pathos. Three suburban couples are playing 20 Questions in the home of Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins). Lucinda (Catherine Curtin), a friend of Jo's since college, and her husband Edgar (Thomas Jay Ryan) are treated with contempt by the others. The thrice-married Fred (C.J. Wilson) keeps telling prospective wife #4 Carol (Tricia Paoluccio) to shut up as she tries unsuccessfully to fit in. There is much bickering with occasional asides to the audience. Jo is terminally ill and in great pain, a circumstance that she uses as a license to treat everyone horridly. After the guests leave and the hosts go to bed, Elizabeth (Jane Alexander), an enigmatic older woman of regal bearing and her mysterious black companion Oscar (Peter Francis James) suddenly appear. When Sam discovers the pair in his living room the next morning, Elizabeth tells him that she is Jo's estranged mother. He refuses to believe her. The party guests from the previous night reappear and resume their bickering. Jo unquestioningly accepts the comfort offered by Elizabeth. Is she Jo's mother, the angel of death, or just the lady from Dubuque? Your guess is as good as mine. The play alternates hilarity with inscrutability and tragedy. Jo's piercing screams of pain will not leave my memory soon enough. It is not top-drawer Albee, but I was glad to have the opportunity to see it. I won't go so far as to recommend it though. The cast is fine, except that Hayden's performance seemed a bit overheated. David Esbjornson directed. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.