Theater Review : Gender-Bent ‘Perversity’: Date Lives in Infamy

David Mamet, who has carved out a career as playwright/warcorrespondent in the ongoing battle between the sexes, first made his mark with the 1976 “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” a short one-act about two men and two women in a highly charged and venomous dating scene.

The war has been good business for the Fritz Theatre, which has been running the show as a 10 p.m. offering Friday and Saturday nights since April 10, 1992, with occasional forays into the 8 p.m. slot. In September, to mix things up a bit, artistic director Duane Daniels put a fresh spin on the story by casting women in the men’s roles and men in the women’s roles.

The changes proved provocative and challenging--definitely low-tech--but well worth catching as the second half of a double feature after an 8 p.m. show or even as an unusual post-dinner date (if you want to make sure you’re not going to run out of things to talk about).

And if you want a double dose of Mamet, you can catch “Perversity” after “Oleanna” at the Old Globe. (“Oleanna” continues through June 26.) Not only would doing so satisfy any Mamet-mania, but it would give insight into just why the vengeful female lead in “Oleanna,” written last year, was so absolutely unappeasable.

Though keep in mind if you mix “Oleanna” with “Perversity,” it’s a doubleheader that can push even seasoned theatergoers into culture shock. After all, the Globe experience is about theater that fills the senses, impeccable acting talent in a beautifully appointed 600-plus seat venue, with set, lighting and costume designs that interweave their own sensory stories with the written one.

At the 80-seat Fritz, the production is uneven, the performers young and of mixed talents, the sets composed of four white plastic chairs; a big costume change consists of putting on sunglasses.

And yet for those who see theater as an adventure and the script as everything, it’s a theatrical trip with unexpected rewards.

While Daniels is the credited director on the piece, assistant director Beverly Delventhal, who has had the unique distinction of playing all the parts at various times in this production, is responsible for directing this particular cast, young actors all: Debbi Ayers as the hardened macho male Bernie Litko; Mara Holguin as his uncertain disciple, Danny Shapiro; Justin Brinsfield as the girl that Danny falls for, and Kevin Six as Deborah’s suspicious roommate, Joan Webber.

*

The plot in this 57-minute show is simple. Boy (Danny) meets girl (Deborah). Boy gets girl. Friend (Bernie) talks boy out of girl. Friend (Joan) talks girl out of boy. Now alone and stripped of any faith in love, boy and girl seemed destined to become clones of their caustic friends.

The Fritz’s gender switching, however, is a mixed bag.

At times it seems to nullify the very point of the play. But at its best it flips sexist remarks by Mamet’s men into comic absurdity by having the lewd remarks about the women’s anatomy come out of the mouths of actresses. At those times, it refracts the meaning, injecting sexual stereotypes into a Looking Glass world where strange truths are revealed.

Watching Ayers and Holguin swagger and strut like men while Brinsfield and Six exude tragic vulnerability and repressed anger puts a new spin on the assumptions loaded onto male/female relationships over time.

Within this challenging framework, the Fritz delivers a competent, though hardly definitive production.

Ayers is the best of the ensemble, conveying Bernie as a heartless, but darkly funny sex-driven soul. But Holguin’s vulnerability as Danny still seems too feminine in nature and ultimate conversion to cynicism less than completely convincing.

Brinsfield, while towering over Holguin, manages to hit the classic feminine reactions without making fun of them. And Six gets the repression down but with far too much chill.

*

On July 24, as a special benefit for the Fritz, all the 30-plus actors who have ever been in the show here are scheduled to take part in a performance of “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” Sounds crowded, sure, but different enough to be right at home at the Fritz.

* “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” the Fritz Theatre, 420 3rd Ave., San Diego. Tonight at 8 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays beginning next Friday, 10 p.m. until further notice. Running indefinitely. $10. (619)233-7505. Running time: 57 minutes. Mara Holguin: Danny Shapiro

Debbi Ayers: Bernie Litko

Kevin Six: Joan Webber

Justin Brinsfield: Deborah Solomon

The Fritz Theatre. By David Mamet. Directed by Duane Daniels. Co-directed by Beverly Delventhal. Lights: Douglas Gabrielle. Sound: Marty Eldridge. Costumes: Allen Ogden. Sets: Daniel Morris. Stage manager: William Bryant.