Flesh Out the Details

In Reed Johnson’s excellent report on nudity in L.A. theater (“Bare Truths of Character,” April 21), he neglected to mention one of the more effective and controversial uses of the naked body on the local stage. I’m referring to Joan Hotchkis’ “Elements of Flesh,” a solo performance on aging and sexuality that played at Highways and throughout the Southland in 1996-97.

The sight of the elegant Hotchkis tastefully posed with bare buttocks and a coy smile, daring to be sexy at 68 years of age, flipped people out. The show generated hate mail, newspapers refused to print the production’s ads, and even the beyond-liberal audiences of Highways called to complain and cancel their memberships. All this for a funny, insightful, smart, important show that dared posit that as we age, we need not fear that we’ll lose our sexual lives.

LIBBE S. HaLEVY

Mount Washington