By Joshua Knopp/entertainment editor
The NE Campus theater department will present Sexual Perversity in Chicago Oct. 6-9 in the NFAB Theater.
The play, written by David Mamet, is about a relationship between Dan Shapiro and Deborah Solomon, two late-20-year-olds living in Chicago.
These characters depict the growth young people go through in a developing and, eventually, degenerating relationship.
“At first, I hated Dan,” said Michael Spencer when asked about his character. “But the more I read him, the more I saw him as a developing character. There are so many sides to him.”
“Deborah is portrayed as an extremely attractive female,” said actress Roxy Astemborski. “Guys fall for her just on her looks, but during the play she realizes there’s more to her than that.”
They are each heckled through the process — Dan by Bernard Litko and Deborah by Joan Webber.
Bernard is Dan’s business associate, friend and, as actor Monte Halprin puts it, “a completely aggressive slimeball.”
“He’s just this lecherous sleezeball,” Halprin said. “And he is somehow still funny.”
Joan is Deborah’s friend and roommate who has been jaded by former lovers.
“She’s cynical, lives vicariously through Deborah … has this uncanny ability to make it everyone else’s fault,” said Felicia Taylor, the actress portraying her. “But she still has hope.”
“I love David Mamet. It’s funny, one of his earlier works,” said director and associate professor of drama Stephen Thomas. “It’s a play that has a lot of reality as far as relationships go. It was written in ’76, but a lot of the same things still go on today. I think students will really connect with it.”
The rest of the group agreed that the play would have a broad appeal to their audience.
“At its essence, it’s about immaturity,” Halprin said.
Halprin said that, though the characters are in their late 20s, they are still on a maturity level comparable to most college students.
“That’s really the science of theater — showing people something real and hoping they learn from it,” he said.
Thomas said that, instead of sitting in the seats, bleachers will be put on stage so the audience will see all the expressions on the actor’s faces.
“It cuts [the audience] almost in half,” said Thomas about the bleacher seating.
Audiences will want to arrive early and be prepared for open sexuality and very rough language.
“I thought it was a little risqué for TCC students,” Taylor said.
This production, as with all plays, will be special and unique to this cast.
“The script only gives us setting and dialogue. The rest is us,” Halprin said. “That’s the great thing about theater.”
Showings will be at 8 p.m. with an additional 2 p.m. matinee Saturday. Tickets are free to TCC students, $3 to other students and seniors and $6 to the general public
