Everything I've ever done I've done because I love you
My boss double-booked herself last night (she has a very active social life, though some of that is work-related stuff), so she gave me her ticket to The Village Bike, a play at the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street. The seat was dead center orchestra, marred only by the very tall man who sat directly in front of me, and the very chatty couples on all sides of me.
The show itself was interesting. I didn't think it was as new and startling as Ben Brantley did in the review I linked to above, but I think being a lady internet pornographer also means I am harder to surprise with "revelations" about women's sexuality (e.g., that women like/desire sex, that it doesn't always have to be about an emotional connection, that women can enjoy porn etc.). I think the play provoked some interesting thoughts, but I did not find Becky, the main character, endearing or charming. She just didn't seem very bright to me (though I guess personal experience also comes into play here - I feel like I learned fairly young - 19 - that you should never ever let yourself be caught on camera and certainly you should never ever share that with anyone because you can't trust them not to share it with people you don't want to see it, and this was well before the age of cellphone cameras! And of course, this is the kind of thing the play should challenge - you, or me, or any woman, should be able to take sexy pictures or video and share it with a partner without fearing that partner will then share it with the world. sadly, that is frequently not the case. (and of course, in my case, I didn't know that I was being filmed. Which is a whole other kettle of consent issues)), while her husband was self-involved and oblivious, which he had to be in order for him not to notice what was happening.
It's about fantasies and how trying to make them reality never works out well in the end - the affair Becky embarks on is basically her and the other guy acting out various escalating fantasy scenarios, and how Becky wants that badly, not the sex (though she definitely wants that) and not necessarily the emotional connection (she's not in love with Oliver so much as she wants his undivided sexual attentions, which she loses when his wife returns; despite setting that as a ground rule when they start the affair, Becky still can't deal with it when the time comes), but the feeling of power that comes through being the embodiment of someone else's fantasy. Especially since her husband has become completely uninterested in sex since she got pregnant. Early on in the play, she actually says that flirting and knowing men want to have sex with her is the only way she really knows how to engage with them. And once that power is gone, at least in the case of her husband, she goes further and further to get it back.
So I'm glad I got to see it, because it made me thinky, but I wouldn't have paid $75 for it, so I'm glad I didn't have to.
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This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/675509.html.
people have commented there.
The show itself was interesting. I didn't think it was as new and startling as Ben Brantley did in the review I linked to above, but I think being a lady internet pornographer also means I am harder to surprise with "revelations" about women's sexuality (e.g., that women like/desire sex, that it doesn't always have to be about an emotional connection, that women can enjoy porn etc.). I think the play provoked some interesting thoughts, but I did not find Becky, the main character, endearing or charming. She just didn't seem very bright to me (though I guess personal experience also comes into play here - I feel like I learned fairly young - 19 - that you should never ever let yourself be caught on camera and certainly you should never ever share that with anyone because you can't trust them not to share it with people you don't want to see it, and this was well before the age of cellphone cameras! And of course, this is the kind of thing the play should challenge - you, or me, or any woman, should be able to take sexy pictures or video and share it with a partner without fearing that partner will then share it with the world. sadly, that is frequently not the case. (and of course, in my case, I didn't know that I was being filmed. Which is a whole other kettle of consent issues)), while her husband was self-involved and oblivious, which he had to be in order for him not to notice what was happening.
It's about fantasies and how trying to make them reality never works out well in the end - the affair Becky embarks on is basically her and the other guy acting out various escalating fantasy scenarios, and how Becky wants that badly, not the sex (though she definitely wants that) and not necessarily the emotional connection (she's not in love with Oliver so much as she wants his undivided sexual attentions, which she loses when his wife returns; despite setting that as a ground rule when they start the affair, Becky still can't deal with it when the time comes), but the feeling of power that comes through being the embodiment of someone else's fantasy. Especially since her husband has become completely uninterested in sex since she got pregnant. Early on in the play, she actually says that flirting and knowing men want to have sex with her is the only way she really knows how to engage with them. And once that power is gone, at least in the case of her husband, she goes further and further to get it back.
So I'm glad I got to see it, because it made me thinky, but I wouldn't have paid $75 for it, so I'm glad I didn't have to.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/675509.html.
people have commented there.