Disappointing ‘Hesperia' examines sex and the search for salvation
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Childhood pals and ex-lovers Claudia (Kelly O'Sullivan) and Ian (Nathan Hosner) try to escape their careers in the porn industry in Randall Colburn's “Hesperia” at Writers' Theatre. |
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The inexperienced Daisy (Rebecca Buller) finds herself attracted to Ian (Nathan Hosner) in the Writers’ Theatre production of “Hesperia,” by Randall Colburn |
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The arrival of Ian (Nathan Hosner, right) — the former lover of Claudia (Kelly O’Sullivan) — does not shake the faith of her fiancee, minister Trick (Erik Hellman, center), in “Hesperia,” running through March 18 at Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe. |
Except for politics, few subjects spark as passionate a response as sex and religion. Make that porn-film sex and fundamentalist religion — the twin topics that drive “Hesperia” at Writers' Theatre — and an explosive drama would seem assured.
Not so much. Randall Colburn's tepid, underdeveloped play about a couple of ex-porn stars trying to redeem and reinvent themselves in small-town America never heats beyond a simmer.
“Hesperia”
&$9733; &$9733;
Location: Writers' Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, (847) 242-6000 or writerstheatre.org
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday through March 18. Also 2 p.m. March 14; no 6 p.m. show March 18
Running time: About 90 minutes, no intermission
Parking: Street parking adjacent to the theater
Tickets: $35-$70
Rating: For adults, contains strong language, sexual situations
Issues of faith and forgiveness and the question of the legitimacy of an individual conversion underscore the play, which suggests that sexual repression and abandon share equal blame when it comes to sexual insecurities. Yet for a drama steeped in sex, the passion feels forced and artificial.
Members of the cast — particularly Erik Hellman and Nathan Hosner — persist in their attempts to flesh out the characters. Yet, we never really feel the magnitude of the stakes. Director Stuart Carden's production fails to sustain momentum, and his staging is puzzling. Too often he has the actors facing upstage, obscuring from the audience the faces of characters whose emotions we want to experience.
Much of the play's gentle humor comes courtesy of supporting players Tyler Ross and Rebecca Buller. But even that falls short. Frankly, you know a play's in trouble when references to Jeff Goldblum and 1983's “The Big Chill” generate the biggest laughs.
The play opens with the arrival of Ian (a raw, ruined Hosner). He has come to Hesperia for the wedding of Claudia (the fair-haired Kelly O'Sullivan), a childhood friend and ex-lover whom he knows as Jessica. Several years earlier, the pair left behind their troubled lives in small-town Michigan to seek fame and fortune in California's porn industry. They worked only with each other and ended every film with their signature: “I love you.”
Ian's drug use sent Claudia packing to the sleepy town near where they grew up, and set designer Chelsea M. Warren evokes Hesperia with a field of golden wheat set against a bucolic, stained-glass scene.
In Hesperia, Claudia found God, redemption and love. She is engaged to Trevor (played with decency and honesty by Hellman), a kindly youth minister whose piety is accompanied by traces of conceit. His students refer to him — inexplicably and entirely without irony — as Trick. The origin of the nickname, for the record, is never explained — one more way in which “Hesperia” fails to deliver.
While Claudia greets Ian's arrival with suspicion, Trick — who knows their history — welcomes him as a lost soul in need of saving. As for Ian, he experiences something of a conversion himself, which to an extent feels more convincing than Claudia's. Additionally, he begins dating the virginal Daisy (the spunky, appealing Rebecca Buller), Trick's curious cousin conflicted by her desire for Ian and the constraints of her faith. Rounding out the cast is Tyler Ross' awkward, endearing Aaron, a teenage Bible student who exists primarily to set up what we know is the inevitable collision between Claudia and Ian's past and their present.
The program notes indicate the play premiered in 2010 at a small Chicago company called The Right Brain Project. Colburn revisited it with Carden and the cast during a workshop at Writers' last August. Perhaps another workshop is in order, one that fleshes out the characters while clarifying the narrative.
