Isn’t there anything you want to keep private?”
Olivia, a thirty nine year old broke and obscure novelist has retreated to a secluded bed and breakfast in rural Michigan. Enter Ethan, fast-talking twenty eight year old, social media celebrity and best-selling author. A blizzard rages outside, and there is no wi-fi. Free from technology’s distraction, they argue, they drink, they flirt and they have sex… a lot of sex. A relationship begins, but can it survive the internet?
Technology has profoundly changed the dating game. Awkward phone calls have been replaced with text messages and emails. Private break ups and intimate moments become public, and someone ‘better’ is only a swipe away. What hasn’t changed from Shakespeare to now however, is our need to connect and desire for intimacy, which compulsively conflicts with our habit of going to extraordinary lengths to prove that we don’t. Laura Eason captures this universal internal struggle beautifully in Sex With Strangers.
Cast
Carissa McAllen as Olivia
Will Atkinson as Ethan
“Q44 Theatre is fast building a reputation for producing a varied repertoire of excellent shows, and Sex With Strangers is another success story.”—Theatre Press
“Q44 raises its own high bar with an intellectual yet accessible, entertaining and thought – provoking drama… Carissa McAllen gives her role equal doses of strength and vulnerability… Charming and seductive to a fault, Atkinson truly makes his role a devil in disguise.”—Theatre People
“The two actors flesh out their roles with high energy. Their tight dance-off, between the sheets and on the page, engrosses. The actors’ skill with delivery, and the theatrical tension they create heats up the stakes”—The Plus Ones
