FringeNYC 2013: MARRIED SEX
The wild world of women's sexual dysfunction! On Laura's honeymoon in Rome, she unearths...problems. Searching for a solution, she encounters an insane hypnotist, a jet-setting Tantric mistress, a cynical sexpert, a horny rabbi, and more. Want relationship tips? Come.
Official production websiteShow details/ticketing at FringeNYC
Review by Case Aiken · August 10, 2013
Married Sex is a new show playing in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival, featuring a one-woman investigation of the hurdles that confront women sexually after marriage, sort of. Written and performed by Laura Zam, with direction by Shirley Serotsky, what is presented is an uneven piece that I had high hopes for.
The driving discussion of this piece is about Zam’s feelings of sexual inadequacies, which are exacerbated when she gets married and finds her personal problems affecting her relationship with her husband. The lingering question that is asked is “Does marriage kill sex?” and Zam rambles quite a bit about her investigations into the matter.
From the information in the program and then further addressed at the end of the show, it seems that the production team wants to organize a project to explore these issues with other women in other formats, such as meetings and brunches. Noting that, I feel like this is a “teaser” for the larger project, but that leaves this piece a little incomplete as a stand-alone work. Zam comes off as a perfectly delightful, and at times quite funny, orator, but the show needs some pruning. Scenes with multiple characters occur quite regularly and often have enough small bits of dialogue being exchanged by the various characters (all played by the same person) that the audience has to spend far too much energy figuring out who said what when all that is being said is “hello.”
While I didn’t dislike this show, I felt that the ideas that drove it either belong in a different medium or need to be better articulated here. I hope that the further endeavors that Zam and her collaborators are working on bear better fruit.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from MARRIED SEX
We're asking artists from each show to answer questions about themselves and their work to help our readers get a detailed advance picture of the festival:
All About My Show · Hilary Kacser (Other)
- Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
gives you the audience a list of practical sex tips -- both married and not! ;-) - What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
This show is about a journey we all undertake in one way or another, discovering our own sexuality, and healing from inner personal trauma. Audiences will take away a clearer sense of sexual healing, through this funny play! - What aspect of the show are you responsible for, and what exactly does that entail? Please be specific, e.g., if you’re the dramaturg, what are the things that the audience will experience that you’re responsible for?
I have contributed to writer-performer Laura Zam's vocal characterizations and delivery, by coaching her different characters' dialects, for individual personages in MARRIED SEX as well as for clarity of articulation for audience comprehension and appreciation. - How did you first become involved/acquainted with this show?
I have known Laura Zam for many years, and have been very grateful for her coaching, both individually and in her wonderful Solo Performance Labs, working with her on developing my own original solo shows. - Is there a particular moment in this show that you really love or look forward to? Without giving away surprises, what happens in that moment and why does it jazz you?
A particular moment in this show I really love or look forward to? There are so many! Without giving away surprises, what happens that jazzes me? I don't want to give anything away, but the whole show is jammed with charming moments. I love when Laura Zam's character, Laura Zam (who here points out the magic of theatre -- yummy -- along with the subtleties of truth telling in solo theatre), experiences revelation inside the Sistine Chapel, revealing, "The funniest part -- it's really funny -- Pope Benedict looks exactly like the neighbor who molested me when I was four years old; isn't that funny?... I have to get out of here." This serious theme is so insightfully explored through humor: not only is the show indeed really funny, it's also immensely truthful in that when we experience powerful abuse, we very often respond by laughing. That's why torture sufferers testimony has often been disputed, because the victims cannot speak of their experiences without laughing. I'm being ham fisted here attempting to describe what MARRIED SEX handles so deftly, a subject which is reported as having been experienced by one in four. With so many more cases unreported, this show is truly universal in an individual tale, told with a light and loving touch. Funny for all, the show deals with an important and often unexplored subject. For many, like the show's Clara, from the Czech Republic, "We don't talk like this." Now here, Clara continues, "In US, people are very open, and also people have issues, so I will talk about something, and maybe it is issue." In another telling moment, Olga, who's "probably older than a lot of people here," remembers how, "in the 70s, women all over the world got together to talk about how disappointing our lives were. It was really beautiful." Like MARRIED SEX.
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