The Odyssey Theatre Presents “Mono/Poly.”  Written and Directed by Bryan Reynolds. 

This is a play about sex.  Not just your every day, once a week, sleepy, quickie kind of sex that you fit in after the news and before you fall asleep. 

This is the kind you make a huge priority in your life.  It’s front and center, so to speak.  It’s sex as a lifestyle choice.  Sex as a calling. Sex as freedom. 

We have all heard of polyamory by now.  A relationship between more than two people.  Consensual, open, sharing and loving.  So when a poly-triad family meet two apparently “regular” heterosexual couples at a costume party, who just happen to run a consulting company, they offer them a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity, which also allows them some very real insight into the poly-triad’s unique and long establish relationship. Well…something very interesting is bound to happen, isn’t it?

This really is a fascinating play and quite brilliantly acted.  The characters are real and finely wrought. Their connections to each other feel true, passionate and electric.  The situations the hetros find themselves in are comical as well as revelatory.  There are multiple layers of self discovery, each character traveling down a different path but there’s nothing destructive, nothing damaging.  Only playfulness, unfolding destinies and peace.

If fact the only danger is for the poly-triad interestingly enough and that is fleeting and in its own way very informative and rather beguiling.  This is a play about sex, sure.  But what it is really about is trust.  In each other, in ourselves and in love.

The staging is simple and effective the intimacy very delicately handled.

There is nothing particularly risqué, so you could bring your maiden aunt, but probably no kids…too much explaining on the way home. 

I really had no idea what to expect from this play and was prepared to be a bit flushed at times, but the story is much more than the sex and the actors are really, truly excellent.  They create a believable world for us to safely explore, one where no one gets hurt…unless they like a little pain that is.

“Mono/Poly” runs until November 10, so get over yourself and go see it!!

TICKETS>>

Running October 10 through November 10, Thursday, Friday & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm

The Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Cast:

Tanya Alexander as Victoria

Renata De Costa as Bridget

Travis Joe Dixon as Jerry

Megan Gainey as Crystal

Georgia Gould as Susan

Robert Mammana as Scott

Dennis Renard as Miles

Angela Sauer as Henri