BWW Reviews: Heavy Handed THREESOME at ACT Might Have Something to Say

If you want to ensure that people come to see your play then make sure you have well advertised nudity and sex in it. This is not a condemnation of "Threesome", the current play over at ACT, but a simple fact of the business of theater. But once you've lured those butts into the seats with the titillating title and promise of skin make sure you've got a story to keep the audience engaged once the actors put their clothes on. And while Yussef El Guindi's play does manage some interesting, hot button moments and topics the show feels somewhat forced at times and obscured by the gimmick that got the audience there.

What starts off as an awkwardly funny romp quickly morphs into a look at cultural and gender issues as Egyptian American couple Leila and Rashid (Alia Attallah and Karan Oberoi) invite relative stranger Doug (Quinn Franzen) into their home for the eponymous "Threesome". But once the awkward nervousness of the situation dies down, what it's replaced with are secrets between Leila and Rashid coming to light not to mention the fact that Doug is not as much of a detached stranger to the couple as they once thought.

The issues and situations of the play beyond the nudity are quite riveting. And the secrets and story revealed (which I will not divulge here and which thankfully did not go where I feared they were going to predictably go) are engaging and thought and conversation provoking. And yes, the risqué comedy of the opening sequence is quite funny. Unfortunately the play does tend to derail itself a bit. First with the dialog which tends to come across as forced and scripted. Yes, I know it's a play so it is scripted but the best plays make you forget that and this one doesn't. It's a similar issue I had with El Guindi's previous offering at ACT "Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World" and while the strained nature of the dialog is not as prevalent here, it still happens on occasion which took me out of the piece. Secondly the nudity may have been what got people there but at times it seemed more important to the play than the issues raised. This was never more evident than at the end of the show where the majority of the secrets are bared and the vulnerability of the characters was finally on the surface and just when we were getting somewhere they resorted to one final moment of nudity and ended the play. It just felt gratuitous and like El Guindi didn't know how to convey any more story so ... boobs.

The actors even beyond their attractiveness naked (if that's all you're going for then enjoy) are all quite good and present and engaged in the show and with each other. Attallah is very strong and forceful as the instigator of the threesome and delivers a very layered and complex character. Oberoi turns in an extremely subtle performance only making his outbursts in Act Two all the more powerful. And Franzen's comedy at the top of the show is only matched by his searing confession later on.

To be honest it's in retrospect that the show lost me. The beginning is funny enough and the plot was engaging enough to allow me to overlook some of the forced dialog. But it's looking back on that gratuitous ending that takes what could have been a decent YAY with my three letter rating system and betrays itself taking it down to a MEH+. Yes, there are some shows where the nudity is warranted and integral to the message. This is not one of those.

"Threesome" performs at ACT through June 28th. For tickets or information contact the ACT box office at 206-292-7676 or visit them online at www.acttheatre.org.

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