The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Adult Film’s Other People’s Lives
By Acton
This might sound crazy, but before they continue talking, could she put her phone out on the table? Just to make sure she’s not recording this for some feminist blog or podcast or something. This is one of the first moments that raised goosebumps in You Made Me Feel (writer Kit Zauhar, director Michelle Moriarty), the first of three one-act plays in Other People’s Lives, the latest from the Brooklyn theater company, Adult Film.
You Made Me Feel opens on a young woman (Stephee Bonicafio) sitting at a table with her drink, going through old photos of herself on her phone. Soon she’s joined by a man (Austin Cassel), and it takes a while to figure out what exactly is going on. Is this an awkward date? A friend from school? Gradually, it’s revealed that some time ago, they’d had a sexual relationship— but something’s off. As she recalls their time together, Bonicafio always seems right on the cusp of remembering something really bad. Cassel is funny and then dark as he unravels in the face of her (perhaps) innocuous questioning. Later, the woman meets another man from her past (Matt Street), and this time she tells him things about her life that we suspect aren’t true, using the experience of the first conversation to goad him into revealing more of himself.
Zauhar’s script is brilliant in the ways the characters back into thoughts that they think people like them shouldn’t have. The woman says that whatever happened between her and the man across the table, it definitely wasn’t assault. Then why use the word? Later, one of the men says that if she hadn’t consented to having sex with him in a bar bathroom, he thinks he wouldn’t have pushed it. I was completely absorbed by these oddly suspenseful and antagonistic conversations.
Good to You (writer April Consalo, director Gia Bonello) starts in the dead of night as Nico (Katrin Nugent) steals into a dimly lit living room to strum their guitar. The peaceful moment is shattered when their former bandmate and lover (Consalo), touring the city and still partying after a show, phones them asking to stay the night. She’s offered the couch, but over the course of the evening, they both put off sleep to reminisce, flirt, wrestle, and smoke. Consalo is dynamic as the slightly too loud rock star, countered by Nugent’s subdued ex-musician, who at one point plays a poignant song which captures their relationship as well as that hazy feeling of hanging out with an old friend deep into the night. As the conversation and alcohol flow, their shared jealousy and longing build to a blunt one-two punch.
Moving Dave (writer and director Teddy Collatos) is the very funny finale to Other People’s Lives, a situation comedy that’s relatable to anyone who moves to New York without a trust fund. Teddy (Matt Street) returns to his apartment after a few months after becoming impromptu roommates with Dave (pitch perfect Rich Carrillo), a guy he barely knows but seemed all right at the time. Dave has trashed the place, sublet Teddy’s office, and not paid a dime in rent. On top of that, he’s invited a catatonic woman he met in the park (Emma Goode) to pass out on the couch.
The story involves a scheme to boot Dave out of the apartment, but what I loved were the just-right details of the script, like how the roommates choose to dispose of the bottles full of piss that Dave stores in his bedroom, or the weird way one character (Ari Dalbert) orders two pizzas over the phone. Goode early on has a haunting monologue in which she describes her conspiracy theories, and later her droll delivery gets some big laughs. It’s an excellent climax to a night of stories of people reuniting to find that a whole lot has changed since they went away.
