When David and Jenny first meet in a New York City bar, having connected on a dating website, Jenny immediately excuses herself for a moment, leaving David to wonder if she’s decided she doesn’t like his looks.
It isn’t until a bit later, after she has arrived back at their table with drinks for both, that they make eye contact. It’s a strong, silent theatrical moment, a harbinger of the angst and intimacy that will follow.
In “Thiry-Six,” this Shotgun Players world premiere by playwright Leah Nanako Winkler, nothing that follows is predictable: neither the witty, quasi-metatheatrical direction by Michelle Talgarow nor the impulsive, emotionally full performances by Soren Santos and Lauren Andrei Garcia, with nic feliciano as the ever-present narrator who provides stage directions and is a gleeful observer of the nascent maybe-romance.
David, who seems nerdy at first but soon enough, in Santos’ strong performance, becomes fully dimensional, has arrived for the date prepared. He proposes to Jenny that they query each other from a list of 36 questions that actually did appear in a “Modern Love” essay in the New York Times. Derived from research by a group of psychologists, the questions are a formal way for couples to connect quickly and intimately.
Jenny, who scoffs at the idea of the questions, has no intention of seeing David again and simply wants quick, hot sex. Garcia’s Jenny is beautiful and charming and strong-minded, and, just as Santos’ David gains strength, so does her Jenny reveal layers of loneliness and vulnerability. It’s wonderful to watch these two actors work their way through their various emotional changes, and through the ups and downs of their presumably one-night-only romance.
And the 36 questions, when the pair finally do get through the at-times quite offbeat (but always suggested, never literally depicted) sex scenes and onto David’s agenda, provide a solid structure that keeps the 90-minute play moving along smoothly. (Only some of the 36 are part of the play—just the right amount.)
In one scene, the pair responds to question No. 11 —”Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible” — by setting their timers for exactly four minutes. Another question asks, “Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say?” Jenny does, David doesn’t.
After endless, predictable screen romcoms, it’s sheer pleasure to watch a completely unpredictable relationship, of some sort or another — but a fully human relationship for sure — develop in full living color before our eyes. It’s the sort of thing that can only work this well onstage in real time.
Shotgun’s team nails every fraught moment of Winkler’s witty, poignant play.
Shotgun Players’ “Thirty-Six” continues through Dec. 22 at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are $28-$40 at shotgunplayers.org.
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