Fringe, Reviewed: The Orgasm Chronicles
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"If any of it makes you blush, you're too square to function."
[ theater ]
The Orgasm Chronicles, by OneTaste Philadelphia
Attended: Sun., Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m., Biello Martin Studio; closes Sept. 21
Sharing their personal stories in prose and poetry, OneTaste Philly leads a tour through the orgasmic cycle.
WE THINK:
Written and performed by people who participate in OM (Orgasmic Meditation), The Orgasm Chronicles is a series of dramatic monologues (and one dialogue) about various erotic experiences in four acts titled, seriatim: “Desire,” “OM,” “Beast,” and “Connection.” The performers are all very earnest, which can be wearisome, but some are also capable of moments of dynamism.
Pay attention to the sultry (those eyes though) and funny Sofia Lloyd, the bombastic Tom Summerville, the whispering and moaning Mamapaolo Mokeyane, and Rhianna Gaehring, whose portrayal of unshackled female sexuality in the duet puts Frank Perri’s clownish take on male sexual power in the shade. The more seriously he delivers lines like, “undressed, I feel like a beast unleashed,” the more I want to laugh him off the podium stand and out of the intimate Biello Martin Studio.
Which brings us to the writing, so much of which is hit and miss, or maybe I mean take it or leave it. It varies from laugh out loud funny (the good kind), to too lyrical by half, to Fifty Shades of Grey funny (the bad kind), to "my orgasms put me in touch with the cosmos" nonsense. If any of it makes you blush, you’re too square to function.
“Your cock feels like a lightning rod in my mouth,” as a sentence, a clear miss, but just wait till you hear Gaehring’s coy timbre deliver it.
“There have been a bunch of great matches in history, Romeo and Juliet, Lennon and McCartney, peanut butter and jelly, my mouth – and your pussy!” shouts Summerville. Take it or leave it.
