Are we genuinely in such a great place in human history?! The huge technological advances that have taken place in the last fifty years would indicate so. And yet….are human beings happier? We are much better informed, absolutely, however do we know, better, what we are doing? Do we have a clearer idea of how, best, to live our lives?!

This is the question that American playwright Laura Eason puts forward in her play SEX WITH STRANGERS, originally produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and presently receiving its premiere Australian production at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 1 Theatre, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Eason’s ‘big picture’ play is encased within a very contemporary love story. It’s another situation of opposites attracting as two writers, from opposite sides of the track, in a literary sense, meet at a bed and breakfast writer’s retreat in a wintery Michigan, and begin a romance.

In the lowbrow corner is Ryan Corr, who plays twenties something Ethan, a brash, confident Gen Y blogger who has topped the New York Times best seller list with his book SEX WITH STRANGERS, a journal style book of creative non fiction which details his sexual exploits with women.

In the highbrow corner is Jackie McKenzie who plays thirties something Olivia who has a failed literary novel ten years behind her and is currently working on an almost completed new manuscript.

The bottom line in the narrative is that Olivia can’t ever quite get her head around the fact that she falls in love with this guy yet she can’t stand the way he lives his life, and the things that he represents. A very private person, Ethan is the exact opposite, everything is public.

A cutting edge, big themed play like Eason’s begs for, and deserves, a bold, fresh, very now production and this is exactly what it gets in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s hands. A renowned, international film director, Moorehouse retains the intimacy and spark of a great theatre experience and adds a very cinematic feel, using the changing back wall of the set to project images and literary quotes and to create an alphabet soup kind of effect as per the production photo above.

She wins strong performances from McKenzie and Corr and the creative team of designer Tracy Grant Lord, lighting designer Matthew Marshall, and composer and sound designer Steve Francis who vividly create Eason’s world.

Guaranteed to foster plenty of debate, just what good theatre is supposed to do, SEX WITH STRANGERS is the opposite of an empty experience!

Jocelyn Moorhouse’s production of Laura Eason’s SEX WITH STRANGERS opened at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, on Friday 28th September and runs until Saturday 24th November, 2012.

(c) David Kary

4th October, 2012

Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- SEX WITH STRANGERS, Laura Eason, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Jackie McKenzie, Ryan Corr,Tracy Grant Lord, Matthew Marshall, Steve Francis,Brett Boardman, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary