Review: Playwright Thomas Bradshaw Cuts Down On The Sex in FULFILLMENT

Newcomers to the plays of Thomas Bradshaw may be surprised to know that his latest, FULFILLMENT, is rather tame compared with prior Off-Broadway offerings like BURNING and INTIMACY.

There's only about a third of the number of sex scenes; sometimes kinky, but this time all of it is consensual and between fully grown adults who aren't related to each other. Yes, the leading actor exposes his penis but in this play he keeps it flaccid.

So instead of rolling one's eyes at his contrived plots with no apparent purpose but to connect the dots between assignations, the viewer can instead focus on the somewhat better-realized human characters presented on stage.

Most of us probably wouldn't mind having the life lived by law associate Michael (Ghenga Akinnagbe) when the play opens. He's doing well enough to have just bought a $1.4 million dollar apartment in SoHo and, as he tells his buddy Simon (Christian Cox), he just had a kinky hook-up with a co-worker, Sarah (Susannah Flood), who loves getting spanked.

As the only woman in the firm, Sarah, who is white, tells Michael, the only black employee, that they should try and help each other. Michael doesn't believe the reason he hasn't made partner yet is because of racism, although he's aware that they tend to show him off whenever there's a black client around. When he confronts his boss (Peter McCabe) about the situation he's told the reason he hasn't been promoted is because he drinks, although the audience has yet to see any evidence that this is a problem.

Sarah, who's a bit aloof when she's not being spanked, suddenly becomes caring and volunteers to give up drinking herself and accompany Michael to A.A. meetings. She also introduces him to a yoga and meditation class where the leader preaches contentment through giving up masturbation.

Eventually Bradshaw gets to the issue that will propel the rest of the play. Michael's rude upstairs neighbor, Ted (Jeff Biehl) refuses to follow the building rules to have 90% of his floor carpeted and the noise, supposedly from Ted's young daughter, drives Michael crazy. When he complains to the building manager (Denny Dillon) the noise gets louder. Set designer Brian Sidney Bembridge cleverly places a balcony to one side where the audience can see Ted stomping away. At one point he's even bowling.

Things between Michael and Ted get heated, and eventually tragic, but director Ethan McSweeney's production seems to intentionally lack emotion. Perhaps the point is that the characters are so set on seeking fulfillment with possessions and recognition that they forget to relate to other people. FULFILLMENT is certainly more interesting than Bradshaw's past work but the characters still seem undercooked.

On a side note, Yehuda Duenyas is credited as the production's sex choreographer, although the sex scenes don't seem any more choreographed than the ones you'd see in any other professional production. This isn't exactly Tommy Tune territory.

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