Lusty ‘Adulto’ Looks at Taboos

“Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo” is about women and sex and the men they do it with. Written by 1997 Nobel laureate Dario Fo with his wife, Franca Rame, who first performed it, this one-woman show at the Fremont Centre Theatre is neither lewd nor grossly crude.

Performing the four monologues, Italian-born Francesca Fanti is funny and lusty as she portrays ordinary Italian women held captive or captivated by the unseen men in their lives. Beginning with a dowdy married woman, Fanti shows comic desperation as she prepares to take her baby to a day-care facility on her way to work while her husband sleeps. Changing to a flirtatious red dress, she becomes a young woman sneaking her lover into the family house for some clandestine lovemaking. In the third monologue, she is a frustrated woman attempting to get an abortion and finding the medical system wanting. Lastly, Fanti is a worn-out, dimly intelligent prostitute answering questions that slowly evolve into a surrealistic drama.

Although these monologues question the sexual equality of men and women, this isn’t a hate-baiting, male-bashing 90 minutes. As staged by Michael Michetti, it’s a sometimes sly, often funny look at cultural taboos and sexual issues that aren’t uniquely Italian.

* “Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo,” Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. (888) 441-5979. Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 19. $15. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.