A year ago this week, Diversionary Theatre premiered a new one-act play by Harrison David Rivers about a heartbroken gay man whose religious parents refused to attend his wedding. On Saturday, Diversionary Theatre premiered another one-act by Rivers, this time about a lesbian couple trying to reignite the spark in their marriage.
Like last year’s “We Are Continuous,” Rivers’ latest play, “Straddle,” offers deep and authentic insight into LGBTQ relationships. Both plays use monologues to get inside the characters’ heads. And local actor Marti Gobel has starred in both shows.
But that’s where the similarities end. Where “We Are Continuous” was a quiet, achingly sad, read-between-the-lines emotional drama, “Straddle” is a rambunctious comedy-drama with sexually explicit scenes and an eye-popping coup de théâtre finale. The difference between the two scripts shows Rivers’ range as a playwright, but “Straddle” feels like a play that’s still in need of shaping.
“Straddle” was directed by Diversionary Artistic Director Sherri Eden Barber, who co-conceived the play with Rivers. In her directorial notes, Barber wrote that she wanted to tell an honest, erotic, adult lesbian love story, which she does, but some of the characters’ behavior was confusing.
The 80-minute play is set in a fancy hotel room where Dodie and Vida have checked in to celebrate their 14th anniversary. Their young children are staying with grandma for the night, and Vida — the more grounded and maternal parent — is having a hard time with the separation.
Vida, played by Gobel, is edgy, angry and withdrawn around the younger, more free-spirited and affectionate Dodie, played by Summer Broyhill. In separate asides to the audience, Vida explains that their relationship has become “complicated” and Dodie worries that she and Vida will replicate her parents’ empty marriage.
When Dodie begins drinking heavily and takes a 10-minute trip to the hotel floor’s ice machine, Vida’s memories and suspicions are triggered and things begin to spiral out of control, both comically and dramatically.
As an audience member, I felt like too much was left unsaid between the couple for too long (not just during the play, but in the months leading up to the couple’s anniversary). The ice bucket set-up for their initial confrontation felt contrived and Vida and Dodie’s dramatic actions involving their hotel room door felt out of character.
These women are interesting and likable characters, but I didn’t buy the idea that they’d never once discussed the central conflict and lie in their marriage before that evening.
As Vida and Dodie, Gobel and Broyhill have great chemistry together, and they balance each other’s energy well onstage. Gobel’s Vida is mature, fierce and resentful and Broyhill’s Dodie has a more impulsive, life-embracing personality.
Barber brings a playful, romantic and cinematic style to her direction of the play, which unfolds in a gorgeous hotel room designed by McKenna Perry that’s beautifully lit by Annelise Schultz-Salazar. Hunter Kaczorowski designed the costumes and the sound design was co-created by Barber, Kaczorowski, Evan Eason and Steven Leffue.
‘Straddle’
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through March 15
Where: Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., University Heights
Tickets: $11.50-$61.50 (play has explicit sexual content)
Phone: 619-220-0097
Online: diversionary.org