Review: FOURSOME at IAMA Theatre Co. & Celebration Theatre
A sexy, heartfelt, funny play about the messiness of queer love
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IAMA Theatre Company and Celebration Theatre have nailed the marketing campaign for their premiere of Matthew Scott Montgomery’s Foursome at the Atwater Village Theatre. The sultry photo shoot of four conventionally-attractive queer people in various stages of undress entangled in each others’ arms has filled seats with gay couples and visibly queer people of all ages. With the target audience achieved, this intimate exploration of a holiday trip for two couples with messily-intertwined pasts soars: this is inside baseball with tensions, heartaches, and personal touches that no one wants to have to explain afterward to their token straight friend.
Montgomery has nailed the dialogue and pacing of the sacred ritual of getting ready for a night out. Are there moments when the sense of humor seems to homogenize between characters? Yes. But no more than it does when you are with a group of friends clued in on the same cultural references that you all repeat without end. Undertaking the role of protagonist himself, Montgomery lends an understanding and humanity to a character who would otherwise be easy to ridicule as a nitpicking control freak and bolsters the dynamics of the performance with a recognizable emotional arch. Around him, the cast is uniformly impressive. Adrián Javier gives consistent glimpses of the soft underbelly hidden beneath his confident bravado, Jimin Moon similarly layers a cutesy, carefree demeanor over their searching, philosophical pondering, and Calvin Seabrooks seems to relinquish himself to the role of peacekeeper until his chance to reveal the wounds he is working to heal.
The performance has the capability to hold up a mirror many queer people of a certain age will recognize all while landing fun cultural references and building to a deliciously erotic sex scene choreographed by Alex J. Gould. With strong elements of design and the overall polish one can expect from a top-rate theatre company, director Tom Detrinis has delivered a production well-worth the price of admission. The text itself is not without problem; although the tension is beautifully and subtly built in the first half, the sex scene halts the natural momentum of the piece and, try as they might, the cast is never able to get it back on track to land a meaningful ending. The last third of the piece suffers from overstaying its welcome and desperately trying to resolve the messiness it took so much care in laying out. Ultimately, the piece fizzles out rather than sticking a landing, but the ride is enjoyable and a refreshing night at the theatre.
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