The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News October 1, 2004

Modern love story plays in the Little

Upstairs in a New York City apartment, two near-strangers are consummating their love. And they are doing it loudly. Thus begins Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Terrance McNulty’s romantic comedy about finding love in a dating world where romance seems dead—which features this weekend here at Oberlin College.

Frankie and Johnny work together in a restaurant; she a snappy, untrusting waitress and he a short-order cook beginning to realize that the life he’s been leading is less than satisfying. Tonight is their first date, and after an unexpected hot romp, the two are considering what it means to be middle-aged and single, and whether or not lasting love is any longer a possibility.

Johnny surely thinks so. In fact, the minute they step out of bed, he begins proclaiming his love for his co-worker—making plans to settle down and continue their currently unfulfilling lives together in bliss. Frankie is, as one would expect, horrified. She has had her fill of failed relationships in the past and is anxious to call their encounter a one-night stand. Yet she sticks around, one moment attempting to guard herself from Johnny’s amorous declarations and at another becoming intrigued, affectionate and open. The two are more intimate as the night continues, cooking for one another and sharing stories from their past, both painful and funny.

The play is sharp and witty, centered on these two complex and endearing characters whom the audience hopes will come together in the end. Alternately funny and sexy, the show captures one evening in the lives of these everyday people and manages to make the mundane significant, their meeting a romance.

Although the show is set in the 1980s, little else besides the actress’s wardrobe suggests that it is any time but the present. The issues confronted—cynicism about love, safe-sex culture and the de-romanticization of sex—are just as pertinent today. Even on a college campus, where love and loneliness are not the most pressing of issues, the theme of seeking out companionship and making a connection with another is just as relevant.

Olivia Briggs, who plays the role of Frankie, chose this play for her senior project for the content of the play as well as the fun and overall light-hearted script. In a role she characterizes as “unlike any she’s attempted before,” Briggs describes the difficulty of conveying a person who is both lonely and closed-off, jaded from love but also seeking comfort in another. “With honors-level work you should challenge yourself,” she says. Both Briggs and her director, senior Jessica Bedwinek, agrees that, despite her humor, Frankie is both a taxing and complicated character.

Ben Sinclair, playing the role of Johnny, mentions similar difficulties, particularly in playing a character so vulnerable to his co-star’s rejection and so desperately seeking contentment. Sinclair and Briggs both mention the banality of the two lovers, who are, essentially, average. “There’s nothing special about these people,” Briggs says, “except that you have to watch them for the next two hours.” But this does not prove a challenge to the audience in the least. The developing romance, and the resistance to this same romance, is charming, insightful and hilarious.

The difficulty of such a production for both the actors and director is the proximity of the characters. For two hours, all action takes place in the bedroom, or rather, in the one-room apartment with fold-out couch, and during this action only Frankie and Johnny occupy the stage. The sporadic interference of a radio personality, announcing the soundtrack for their romantic evening, is the only other presence heard.

This puts an enormous pressure on the actors to connect, which truly is the same conflict that Frankie and Johnny are encountering. Much to Frankie’s resistance, a bond must develop between them, if nothing more than that of a shared evening. “It’s about a connection,” Sinclair says, “It’s hard to fall in love and let go of your hang-ups. Our romantic ideals tell us that [love] will be easy. It’s not easy.”

Bedwinek agrees. “This play,” she says, “is a celebration of love.”

Just as a warning, whether this is an incentive or a deterrent, Frankie and Johnny is for mature audiences and contains some nudity.

Little Theater. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 2 and 3, at 8 p.m. in Oberlin College’s Little Theatre. General admission tickets will be $5, $3 with OCID. All tickets are $2 more when purchased at the door.
 
 

   

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