Review: HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE at Black Box PAC

For married couples lucky enough to experience lasting satisfaction in their unions, is monogamy the secret? Is it possible to go beyond the scope of wedded bliss, perhaps by expanding this party of two to include another one, two, or even four lovers to the equation?

After all, according to Dossie Easton, author of The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Adventures, "the most successful long-term relationships are the ones with enough flexibility to redefine themselves over and over again through the years."

Polyamory is the desire for, or practice of, intimate relationships with more than one lover who share mutual consent. Polyamorists tend to reject the idea that exclusivity is the key to longevity in partnerships. The concept is food for thought in Sarah Ruhl's riotous play, "How To Transcend a Happy Marriage." The play is being staged at the Black Box Performing Arts Center in Teaneck through March 17 and is directed by its artistic director, Matt Okin.

In the play, two middle-aged couples, George (Shari Cohen), Paul (Isaac J. Conner), Jane (Lisa Tiger) and Michael (Brian Arya, the host and executive producer of Fox's "Beat Shazam") engage in a salacious conversation about polyamory over wine, cheese and uproarious laughter. The topic for discussion was prompted by Jane, a soccer mom of sorts who works with a fetching 20-something temp affectionately called Pip (Sara Brown) who happens to be in an open relationship with two men. She's not only animalistic in her love life, but an avid hunter who frequents a sustainable farm in Upstate New York to hunt and butcher her own game. (Low iron levels triggered her to take up the ritual.)

As the couples become tipsy, the scintillating dialogue has them pondering whether the act of polyamory is a movement or a fad. Is it considered ethical or sinful? Is there any sense of shame and secrecy tied to the practice? After all, as one spouse joked, "It's hard to be out when you're a polyamorist, even in Portland!" But not for Pip, who has these couples' curiosity about open relationships piqued, so much that Jane and Michael invite her and her male courters to join the gang for a New Year's Eve party at their place - no better day to leave their cares behind. The date was perfect, as Jane and Michael's daughter Jenna was out having some fun of her own for the holiday. And, like a group of mischievous high school kids, the friends had the house to themselves.

Sharing a tray of tasty hash brownies, throwing back glasses upon glasses of wine and noshing on adult snacks (nuts, carrots, broccoli stalks and plum tomatoes), the group got better acquainted with Pip, who alternated were place on the laps of her beaus Freddie (Josh Olumide) and David (Daniel Yaiullo). Pip never believed in marriage given the whole patriarch thing. Pip's long legs were clothed in shorts worn over patterned black stockings, her hair styled in a wavy blonde bob.

Amid small talk about what they do for a living, her boyfriend David, a mathematician, boasts his knowledge of differential geometry, specifically, the study of triangles, which piques the interest of Paul, an architect by trade.

Though there aren't many stringent rules about his open relationship with Pip and Freddie, one precept applies: close friends are off limits. After getting drunk and starting to revel more in each other's company, Pip reveals her carnal desires for both sexes and suggests to spice up the party with a little karaoke. As Jane brings a dated karaoke machine to the living room floor finding her jam, Pip sexily serenades both her men with a breathy warbling of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain," creating sexual tension one can cut with a knife.

It wasn't long before the inevitable "wild romp" ensued and the seven actors took to the sectional sofa animatedly staging an orgy with the lights dimmed. With things getting hot and heavy, the group is thrown off guard when an unexpected visitor walks in - Jane and Michael's teenage daughter, Jenna, who bails after being freaked out at this ungodly sight.

Throughout the falling action, the sexcapade is the precipice that leads to a domino effect of a succession of bad events. Apart from Michael and Jane's daughter going AWOL after her WTF moment, George and Pip get into more hot water after a whimsical hunting trip lands them in the slammer. As Jane yearns for her daughter's return home and thinks back to her violin recital staged during a time of innocence, the tryst and the consequences that follow have the couples examining the validity of their own relationships, on top of a looming fear of judgment and, not to mention, their possible development of feelings for their sex partners. In "How to Transcend a Happy Marriage," the cast's over the top, laugh-out-loud delivery makes the audience feel like they're just a part of this arbitrary sexploration as they are. Ruhl unabashedly and comically explores the blurred lines of human sexual desire and what it means to be truly happy.

Black Box PAC is located at 266 Walraven Drive, Teaneck, NJ 07666. How to Transcend a Happy Marriage will be performed through March 17. For tickets, please visit http://www.blackboxpac.com/. To contact the Box Office or for additional information, please call 201.357.2221 or contact blackboxpac@gmail.com.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Matt Okin

To post a comment, you must register and login.