Manhattan residents Matt (Ryan Lisman) and Davis (Trent Culkin) go on a trip to Amsterdam. Davis hires the services of Christina (Natalie Valentine), a prostitute, who claims to be French. In a rare form of ménage à trois, their sexual encounters reveal the emptiness of their lives and the desperate search for human connection.
In the first scene, Matt tries to commit suicide with his belt. He fails miserably and the act seems rather comical. Davis brings Christina to the room to introduce her to Matt. Davis is a bully and is constantly making fun of Matt’s medical condition involving his intestines. As a successful editor at a publishing company, Davis exudes an air of superiority, always putting down whoever is close to him. Before introducing her to Matt, Davis has sex with Christina. She gets infatuated with Davis right away, but agrees to spend time with Matt.
Once Davis leaves the room, Christina has sex with an insecure and dorky Matt. Just like his suicide attempt, the sex with Christina is quick and funny. He falls asleep instantly (like, instantly) after orgasming. Christina then gets out of the room, leaving her red dress behind. Matt wakes up and holds the red dress in his arms, showing his infatuation with Christina.
The second act shows Matt in his apartment, back in New York. He continues to be in touch with Davis. Surprisingly, Christina knocks on the door. She is looking for Davis. She reveals her true identity and confides her devastating secret to Matt, who is still infatuated with her.
Playwright Adam Rapp references different authors in the script. The one that stands out is Henry Miller. Matt, who is a playwright, is writing a play using roman à clef, a genre in which Miller wrote The Rosy Crucifixion, a trilogy documenting a period of his life. In the same literary genre, Matt is writing about his life. He includes characters depicting himself, Davis, and Christina.
Billy Ray Brewton‘s direction is extraordinary. He makes sure his actors exteriorize the complications of dynamic relationships and the unrequited love Matt and Christina experience in that unhealthy love triangle. The blocking, lighting, and props set the characters’ traits and the atmosphere of the story.
This is a character-driven play and the three actors are up to the task. Culkin creates a cold and arrogant character that leaves a trail of damage as he interacts with the people around him. Valentine is exceptional as well. She gives Christina the emotional fragility to search for a connection in the wrong places with the wrong people, suffering dire consequences as a victim of the circumstances. Lisman offers a magnetic performance. He infuses his character with a frustrating inability to connect with a woman, exhibiting shyness, vulnerability, and a weird fetishism for Christina’s red dress. He plays a hopeless and pathetic Matt in such a way that the audience care and feel for his pain. All he gets from Christina, his impossible love, is a “you’re very sweet” compliment, a potential-relationship-killer phrase.
Beneath the humor of Rapp’s brilliant script, is a riveting story of three individuals experiencing the isolation and desolation of their souls, a powerful exposition of contemporary society’s emotional emptiness.
Red Light Winter
Broadwater Black Box
6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038 – September 20-22 & 27-29, Fri./Sat. at 7:30pm, Sun. at 2:30pm
The Zephyr Theatre
7456 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046 – October 3-6 & 10-13, Thur./Fri./Sat. at 7:30pm, Sun. at 2:30pm
Tickets: events.humanitix.com/adam-rapp-s-red-light-winter
Written by Adam Rapp. Directed by Billy Ray Brewton. Produced by Catharsis Theatre Collective.
Cast: Trent Culkin, Ryan Lisman, and Natalie Valentine.
