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Extra Virgin

nytheatre.com review by David Pumo
August 15, 2005

Every year brings to the stage a handful of plays about gay couples who meet in online chat rooms. Usually they are light, sexy comedies, often with a serious twist or two as the couple, post-coitally, get to know each other. None I have seen is as surprising or intense as Howard Walters's Extra Virgin, and none I have seen is as well-written or acted.The play begins when the two are still having sex, and it is quite explicit. Afterward, hunky Elias (Kevin Creamer) wants to relax and be affectionate. But the frailer-looking Noah (Jimmy King), who won’t take his shirt off even during sex, is suddenly moody and pensive. Eventually he suggests that the two do a little soul baring, that they share some emotional intimacy as intense as the sexual intimacy they had no problem sharing with a total stranger. Sounds a bit contrived, but the script makes it happen quite organically. Eventually it is revealed that the two men actually know each other from the far past, and that their meeting tonight was no accident.Without giving anything away, the play takes a jump here into some very serious areas including destructive self-images, bullying, child abuse, and rape. It is a lot to handle in an hour, but director Michael Melamedoff and the cast make it all ring true. The physical contact between the two actors, some of it violent, is very real. Both men handle a broad range of emotion in a short time without ever seeming forced or unreal. The more intimate moments are natural as well, without all the awkward squirming to avoid actual contact or exposure that breaks the reality of many scenes like this. Creamer and King are comfortable with each other, and unconscious of the audience. Their characters, Elias and Noah, each have reasons for not walking out on this painful encounter. The audience will too.