Kinks and Queens

If, indeed, the arts hold a mirror up to society, then a quick look at what was rocking the theatre world half a century ago demonstrates the impact contemporary theatre has had on the stereotype of a stable and supposedly normative heterosexual marriage.

Following its October 1967 premiere at the Public Theatre, the transfer of Hair to Broadway's 900-seat Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968 suddenly gave middle-class theatregoers an opportunity to dip their toes into the roiling counterculture from the comfort and safety of a legitimate theatre. The musical's frank expressions of free love and nudity (combined with its strong pushback against racism and war) teased, threatened, and titillated audiences so effectively that the show ran for 1,750 performances.


On April 14, 1968 The Boys in the Band, premiered at Theatre Four. While many gay men viewed Mart Crowley's acerbic drama as the first time their lifestyle had been honestly portrayed onstage, others were shocked by the biting wit and internalized homophobia that peppered the script. Instead of ensuring that a gay character's death would console heterosexuals (standard operating procedure in film and theatre at the time), audiences were confronted with the pain and self loathing that were part and parcel of living a closeted lifestyle.


For many musical theatre fans it's hard to believe that Company (the groundbreaking musical by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim) will turn 50 years old in a few months. When the show opened at the Alvin Theatre on April 26, 1970 (where it settled in for a run of 706 performances), the musical focused on a group of married New Yorkers whose lifestyles were vastly different from the characters depicted in 1944's On The Town, 1950's Guys and Dolls, 1953's Wonderful Town, 1957's West Side Story, 1959's Fiorello! 1961's How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Subways Are For Sleeping, 1964's Golden Boy, Hello, Dolly! and Funny Girl, 1966's Sweet Charity and Mame, and 1968's Promises, Promises.

While the protagonist (Bobby) was a casual and commitment-phobic bachelor, the couples he interacted with doted on him as a third wheel who could bring vicarious thrills into their lives with stories from a lifestyle they no longer led. Whether or not they felt stuck in a rut, the husbands and wives who envied and resented Bobby's freedom were constantly trying to set him up on dates, mother him, seduce him, or desperately demonstrate how happy they were (when that was rarely the case).

Over the years, Company has mirrored the changing times (a revival opening on Broadway this spring stars Katrina Lenk as a female "Bobbie"). According to Wikipedia:

"Most members of the original Broadway cast reunited in California for a concert to benefit Actors Fund of America AIDS charities and the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. Angela Lansbury served as host for the January 23, 1993 performance at the Terrace Theater, with narration by George Hearn. The reunion concert was repeated for two New York performances in April 1993 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, directed by Barry Brown with Patti LuPone as host. The excitement of the reunion concerts resonated even in comparison to later full-scale revivals."

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Custom Made Theatre is currently presenting the Bay area premiere of Sarah Ruhl's domestic comedy entitled How to Transcend A Happy Marriage, which focuses on what might happen when two middle-aged couples living in suburban New Jersey become intrigued with the idea of polyamory (relationships that are often referred to as thruples or triads). Their curiosity is sparked when one of the wives starts talking about a woman who has been working as a temp at her law office. As Paul (Matt Weimer), George (Karen Offereins), Jane (Hilary Hesse), and Michael (Malcolm Rodgers) try to figure out whether two men and one woman would create more laundry than two women and one man, they opt to invite the temp worker and her two male lovers to join them for New Year's Eve.

Hilary Hesse (Jane), Malcolm Rodgers (Michael),
Offereins (George) and Matt Weimer (Paul) in a scene from
How To Transcend A Happy Marriage (Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Suddenly, the addition of one unknown factor (male or female) into a somewhat listless marriage pales compared to combining three erotic/exotic strangers with four conventional adults to see what might happen. For the math freaks, that means the difference between 720 possible permutations when only three people are playing compared to 5,040 when seven people are partying.

Matt Weimer (Paul), Fenner (Pip), and Nick Trengrove (David)
in a scene from How To Transcend A Happy Marriage
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

The big difference, of course, lies with each participant's personality. While the two married couples have been together for quite some time (one couple still has a teenage daughter living at home), they share a common lifestyle and seem to have fairly vanilla tastes. Their three guests, however, show a marked difference as a result of their preference for pansexuality, more enlightened attitudes toward life, and much more obvious levels of comfort with their own bodies.

Nick Trengrove (David), Louel Senores (Freddie), and Fenner
(Pip) are a loving triad in How To Transcend A Happy Marriage
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Freddie (Louel Senores) is a cuddly stoner whose lust seems to be primarily focused on David (Nick Trengrove), who is enthusiastically bisexual. Meanwhile, the woman whose body and affection they share, Pip (Fenner), is a free spirit in more ways than their hosts can imagine. Not only does Pip insist on hunting any animals she eats, she is securely in touch with her animal instincts and has an uncanny knack for relaxing the people she meets to a point where they feel freer to indulge in recreational rather than procreative sex.

Karen Offereins doubles as the Narrator and George in
How To Transcend A Happy Marriage (Photo by: Jay Yamada)

After taking some hits off of one of Freddie's joints, Paul's penis is making friends with new hands and holes. While the adults are confused but willing, the unexpected return of Jane and Michael's daughter, Jenna (Celeste Kamiya) -- who is totally grossed out by the sight of her parents and a bunch of fat, old people participating in an orgy -- adds new levels of anxiety, stress, and guilt to the evening's festivities.

In Act II, the nervous, self-conscious George accompanies Pip on a deer hunt where she accidentally shoots someone's dog. With George in jail for hunting without a license, Jenna on the run from her perverted parents, and Pip having disappeared from her jail cell (having literally flown the coop and left behind a feather as a clue to her whereabouts), a hefty dose of magical realism adds spark to the action as four confused heterosexuals try to understand the changes they've experienced since New Year's Eve.

Fenner (Pip) comforts Karen Offereins (George) in jail
in a scene from How To Transcend A Happy Marriage
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Ruhl does a bang-up job of mixing hash brownies, a potent tea brewed from wild mushrooms, and a karaoke version of "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain" awash in sexual innuendo with Pythagorean triangle theory and a fond shout-out to Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book (Where The Wild Things Are) that replaces the orgy call of the ancient Greeks and Romans ("Evoe") with "Let the wild rumpus start!"

Malcolm Rodgers (Michael), Hilary Hesse (Jane), Karen Offereins
(George), and Matt Weimer (Paul) portray two middle-aged
married couples in How To Transcend A Happy Marriage
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Custom Made Theatre's production of How To Transcend A Happy Marriage (which received its world premiere production in March of 2017 from Lincoln Center Theater) has been gleefully directed by Adam L. Sussman on a unit set by Quinnton Barringer, with sound design by Elton Bradman, costumes by Kathleen Qiu and lighting by Weili Shi. The eight-actor ensemble does some fine work, with Matt Weimer, Karen Offereins, and Fenner getting some of the best material in one of Custom Made Theatre's most enjoyable productions in recent years.

Performances of How To Transcend A Happy Marriage continue through February 16 at the Custom Made Theatre (click here for tickets).