The word "closer" has different meanings, depending on the pronunciation of the word: A hard "s" can refer to someone who wraps up baseball games, or who ends things, like closing a deal on a car. A soft one usually deals with physical closeness in terms of another person, whether actual or emotional.
The play "Closer," which opened last night as a production of the St. Louis Actors Studio at the Gaslight Theater, uses both meanings as playwright Patrick Marber revels in a pair of relationships over several years. There are overtones of "La Liaisons Dangereuse" and even of "Private Lives," as Alice (Rachel Fenton) and Anna (Meghan Maguire), Dan (Christopher Lawyer) and Larry (John Pierson), meet, fall in love, have lots of sex, lie, cheat, hurt one another cruelly, sometimes accidentally, sometimes with vicious intensity. The language is raw, the sexual urgency not quite as urgent as it should be, but director Wayne Salomon has brought fine performances from four actors and has kept the action roaring from one scene to another.
We begin with Alice and Dan. She's a stripper who has been hit by a car, has a lacerated leg, just below a strange scar on her thigh. He's an obituary writer for a newspaper, taking her to the hospital, where Larry, a dermatologist (his emotions are always skin deep) is introduced. Alice and Dan flirt a little. Things turn serious and they're off for a day of fun and frolic. At its end, they are in love, having dumped others along the way.
A year or so later, Dan and Alice are living together when he meets Anna, a photographer doing a jacket cover picture for his forthcoming novel. Dan, whose fidelity range seems to be an hour or so, propositions her.
In a fantasy sex chat room, Dan and Larry meet. Dan pretends to be Anna and comes on very strong. Dan's plot results in Larry meeting Anna, and their relationship begins. He then meets Alice at an exhibit of Anna's photography. The couples take turns cheating on one another and there's a whole lot of he-in' and she-in' going on. When not in bed, they cruelly shred themselves and one another with searing, inquisitorial sessions about infidelities, and who does what to whom, when, where, for how long and with what results. They leave one another, return for another dose of humiliation and sex, leave again. It's cruel, and almost tiring, but Marber's writing and the work of the whole cast keeps one intense and intent.
The acting is terrific on Patrick Hubert's minimal, harsh, all-white set. Bonnie Kruger's costumes are just right, especially the shoes and dresses on Alice. A couple of women seated nearby became almost orgasmic talking about the shoes during intermission. I thought they were lovely, with very high heels. Robin Weatherall did his usual outstanding sound design.
Sal0mon's direction builds each small scene to be a drama of its own, and it's exciting to experience.
Fenton, a college student, is splendid. Her Alice, who strips for power as well as money, makes men writhe, and her fierceness is almost frightening. Anna, with the lissome Maguire in full command, is cooler, more sure of herself given a career looking at people through a lens that keeps them at arm's distance. The veteran Pierson is filled with bluster, his desire for Alice, whom he watches at a strip club, is palpable. It's a stunning performance. Lawyer's Dan is the weakest character (that's weak as in strength, not as in writing), but he plays it well. As a long-time newspaperman myself, I hurt to see a co-worker as such a wuss.
Closer, by Patrick Marber, is a production of the St. Louis Actors Theatre at the Gaslight Theatre. It will run through Feb. 27
—Joe