{"id":202636,"date":"2026-03-03T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202636\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:47:09","slug":"diversionary-wanted-an-intimate-play-about-middle-aged-women-they-had-to-make-it-themselves-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202636\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversionary wanted an intimate play about middle-aged women. They had to make it themselves."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Marti Gobel and Summer Broyhill play a married couple on an anniversary trip with unspoken conflict in \u201cStraddle\u201d at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. (Photo by Xingyu She\/Diversionary Theatre)<\/p>\n

As the saying goes, sometimes if you want something to exist, you have to make it yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When planning this season at the Diversionary Theater<\/a>, artistic director Sherri Eden Barber took the aphorism to heart, commissioning Diversionary\u2019s first main stage production, \u201cStraddle<\/a>,\u201d in more than a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She made the 40th season theme \u201cLove as Revolution,\u201d with the first musical, \u201cManifest P,\u201d celebrating self love<\/a>, then \u201cTo My Girls,\u201d examining intergenerational love<\/a> in a chosen family. The season\u2019s last remaining show, a reprisal of<\/a> \u201cRent,\u201d looks at love in community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barber wanted the third show to investigate love as sex. But in scouring 70 different works, Barber couldn\u2019t find precisely what she was looking for: Two women over the age of 40 who weren\u2019t the butt of the joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Summer Broyhill holds Marti Gobel in Marti Gobel in \u201cStraddle\u201d at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. (Photo by Xingyu She\/Diversionary Theatre)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think we\u2019re such beautiful, full, whole beings. And why aren\u2019t we, particularly sapphically, seen and represented\u2026 after we hit a certain point? Especially as mothers, as women\u2026 and Gen X is having some of the best sex of their lives right now,\u201d Barber said on opening night. \u201cI was like, \u2018All right, if I can\u2019t find it, let\u2019s make it, and I know the person who I want to make it with.’\u201d<\/p>\n

So, she got in touch with the playwright who recommended her for the artistic director job in the first place. Harrison David Rivers quickly wrote a blueprint for Barber\u2019s concept, leaving Barber, who directed the piece, and the actors to revise the dialogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The resulting work features two women celebrating their wedding anniversary with a hotel trip while their kids are at grandma\u2019s. Their fire for each other remains after more than a decade of marriage, but simmering beneath their skin is an unspoken conflict it takes until the final moments of the 75-minute play to reveal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStraddle\u201d playwright Rivers said the commission timeline was faster than he normally agrees to, but for Barber and for Diversionary, the theater that gave him his artistic start 15 years ago, he agreed to whip something up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI said yes, because I love it here and because I love Sherri. I wouldn\u2019t probably have said yes to the ask otherwise,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cBut I love it here, and I love this audience, and I love the actors and the designers and the folks who are pouring their hearts into the artistic landscape here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, his achingly sad family drama<\/a> \u201cWe Are Continuous\u201d played at Diversionary starring Marti Gobel. The unsurpassed actor returned Rivers\u2019 work as Vita in this fiery and funny script.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across from her, Summer Broyhill made her Diversionary debut as Dodie, the more affectionate and free-spirited spouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Summer Broyhill and Marti Gobel star in the play \u201cStraddle\u201d at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. (Photo by Xingyu She\/Diversionary Theatre)<\/p>\n

In the opening scene of the play, which does contain partial nudity, Gobel takes off her jacket to reveal a sexy white nurse\u2019s costume but Broyhill stomps around in her revealing leather cowpoke outfit. It should have been the first sign that the married couple was misaligned. But being in two different roleplay scenarios didn\u2019t stop a steamy tango that made at least one audience member question if he was actually gay.<\/p>\n

As the adventurous start to the anniversary weekend fades, the pair careens between nostalgia and jealousy, rage and tenderness, care and indifference, bitterness and delight. Some of their arguments felt incoherent, but long-married couples are frequently illegible to outsiders. The final confession explained much of their erratic behavior, as Broyhill avoided tough conversations while Gobel lashed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Broyhill and Gobel proved themselves to have amazing facial control, communicating the rawness of feelings toward each other. They delivered arresting monologues as well, although those monologues could stand to be more revealing of the eventual plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rushed script may be fine-tuned over time, but its current iteration shows Rivers\u2019 excellent pacing as well as Barber;s rhythm as director. Each time dialogue edged towards too intense, a humorous moment perfectly balanced the tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lighting, scenery and sound were cinematic in scope.<\/p>\n

The show marks the first time it\u2019s ever rained on Diversionary\u2019s stage, an ambitious technical feat from scenic designer McKenna Perry. The verisimilitude of the hotel room she designed was stunning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Marti Gobel as Vita speaks with her mother-in-law and children over the phone in \u201cStraddle\u201d at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. (Photo by Xingyu She\/Diversionary Theatre)<\/p>\n

The design aspects were extraordinarily detailed and thoughtful. Annelise Salazar\u2019s lighting made the static set come alive. Hunter Kaczorowski\u2019s costumes were seamlessly sexy. Remus Harrington\u2019s sound design was flawless. And rounding out the creative team, Jaz Villalino served as stage manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The world-premiere production at Diversionary Theatre in Normal Heights at 4545 Park Blvd. has shows through March 15 with 7 p.m. showings on Monday, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday as well as 2 p.m. matinee showings on Sundays. Find tickets here<\/a>, or call the box office at (619) 220-0097.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Discounted $45 tickets<\/a> are also available for San Diego Theatre Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marti Gobel and Summer Broyhill play a married couple on an anniversary trip with unspoken conflict in \u201cStraddle\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[94015,4284,35862,74,76,75,94016],"class_list":["post-202636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-diversionary-theater","tag-love","tag-normal-heights","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-straddle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}