Review by Brittany Crowell

It’s difficult to talk about sex.  It’s especially difficult to talk about sex in front of an audience full of strangers.  However, Miranda Rose Hall does just that, creating community through empathy and finding humor and shared vulnerability in the discomfort.

Plot Points in our Sexual Development, Hall’s professional debut, is a must see.  With expert direction by Margot Bordelon, the quick, one-hour piece is succinct, lyrical, and deeply affecting.

The play begins with a direct address to the audience.  The two characters, Theo and Cecily, share stories (plot points, if you will) of moments in their sexual development.  From discomfort during “the talk” to knowledgeable cousins or friends teaching the ins and outs of sex and sexuality, the stories shared are specific and personal, giving audience insight into the difficulties of growing a queer identity through a hetero-centered sexual education.

After sharing a few stories, the characters turn their chairs inward, and we learn that they are recounting these memories in an attempt to better understand each other after an uncomfortable sexual encounter.  I won’t try to talk about the moments that follow, as I wouldn’t be able to relay them with nearly as much poetry as Ms. Hall.

Marianne Rendón in ‘Plot Points in our Sexual Development’; Photo by Jeremy Daniel

Plot points features amazing performances from Jax Jackson (Theo) and Marianne Rendón (Cecily).  Jackson and Rendón are absolutely present, both with each other and with the audience, listening with their full selves as their characters work their way through breakthroughs and moments of realization.  Through Bordelon’s wonderful direction, we feel invited into the relationship during the opening direct address and then remain invested throughout the play, even as the characters shift their focus away from us and onto each other.

The piece is set in a sparse room with hardwood floors and two chairs.  The room seems almost floating.  With the void between where floor and wall meet, scenic designer Andrew Boyce highlights the dark unknown between the characters in their journey towards a mutual understanding.  The lighting design by Jiyoun Chang is similarly abstracted with a screen at the edge of the floor capturing the squares of warm yellow light before they find their way onto the wall behind, being fragmented by the separation.

We need more queer love stories like Plot Points in our Sexual Development.  This piece is a universal tale of love; it is about working through moments of discord to find the point where the love and vulnerability connect us.  The grace and care with which these characters move through each moment of the play and navigate the difficulties of this conversation is a lesson to each and every one of us in understanding, care, and acceptance, regardless of our identity or our partner’s.

 

PLOT POINTS IN OUR SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT – Written by Miranda Rose Hall; Directed by Margot Bordelon

WITH: Jax Jackson (Theo); Marianne Rendón (Cecily)

Sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Sarafina Bush; lighting by Jiyoun Chang; sound by Brandon Wolcott

Presented by LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, producing artistic director; Adam Siegel, managing director; Hattie K. Jutagir, executive director of development & planning; Evan Cabnet, artistic director/LCT3.  At the Claire Tow (150 West 65th St); 800-432-7250, https://www.lct.org/lct3/.  Through Nov 18.  Running time: 1 hour, no intermission.