It’s not an uncommon male fantasy, inviting a comely, curvy young woman to share the marriage bed with him and his wife, fulfilling their sexual ideas, kissing and touching and and holding and becoming excited. It’s certainly one Cassie and Kurt talk about in “The Winners,” which is in its world premiere run at Hot City Theatre. It opened over the weekend at the Kranzberg Theatre and will run through Sept. 24.
Cassie (Shanara Gabrielle) and Kurt (Shaun Sheley) are happy enough in their unfulfilled fantasy. They have a daughter, a pleasant home, good jobs.
And then they win the lottery. And here comes Tiffany (Sasha Diamond), certainly comely and curvy in her slightly too-tight, off-the-shoulder black dress, an “escort” hired for the night, for all night. An escort followed by trouble.
Author David L. Williams, twice a finalist in Hot City’s GreenHouse Festival of New Plays, has a good idea. After all, sex sells, and kinky sells better than straight vanilla. But “The Winners” has a lot more talk about things other than sex, and that’s a loser.
Tiffany arrives, and a little negotiation follows, and like rival baseball managers meeting at home plate before a game, they discuss ground rules. We discover that this fantasy primarily belongs to Cassie, but when she mentions a college girl she was had a minor sexual thought about, Kurt reverts to his own college — or high school — days and throws a juvenile jealousy fit.
Kurt and Cassie also struggle over control of Tiffany. There are friendship moments, and power moments, and Tiffany realizes that sex is less important to her employers than power over her, or one another. Sex moves into the background, and when Cassie turns a corner and disappears into another drama, interest steadily lessens.
There’s strong acting; Sheley and Gabrielle are far more experienced than Diamond, a Washington U. student, and it shows, though in the early going, Diamond acts as if she’s really looking forward to everything that is about to happen. Sheley blusters, then backs off, and his inexperience with girls like Tiffany shows early and often. Gabrielle never seems to relax, though she offers a nicely drawn portrayal of Cassie. She’s obviously a woman who lives under the tightest self-control, because as soon as she springs an emotional leak, the levee crumbles.
The actors talk about a lot of things, but they don’t get right down to talking about sex, and most of the physical contact seems awkward, as if the actors are nervous about touching one another. No nudity, and when it comes to language, well, the four-letter words serve mainly as adjectives, not as action-carrying verbs.
The Winners, a production of Hot City Theatre, will be at the Kranzberg Theatre through Sept. 24
— Joe