“There’s no solace for a writer.  There’s no comfort, even in success. The blank page beats ENDLESSLY against the back of your eyelids, so even sleep offers no relief…”

The main character of Adam Szymkowicz’ provocative new play The Sex Writer, now making its World Premiere at New York City’s Gene Frankel Theatre, is Jane.  Jane, played by Tammi Cubilette, is an author of erotic fiction and a professor at Columbia University.  The strong sense of drama arrives in the very first moments of Szymkowicz’ play: The audience learns that Jane’s father was an award-winning, highly revered author who, sadly, hanged himself at an arts festival.  Forced to contemplate her own complicated personal relationship with her deceased dad, Jane is suffering from writer’s block and feeling contempt for her job as a professor.  Her staid boss (David Arthur Bachrach) has been picking up on her professional burnout.  Although she lives with her boyfriend Todd (Edward Miller), who shares Jane’s polyamorous ideals, the titular sex writer’s restless spirit and unapologetic sexual fluidity leads our protagonist to indulge in a wide variety of sexual fantasies.  Some of these fantasies actually become realized, such as when she enjoys an afternoon of passion with a wide-eyed teacher’s assistant named Trish (Callie Fabac).  The story takes a major turn when Jane heads over to picturesque New England hometown to settle the family estate. There, she reconnects with her mother (Olivia Baseman) and meets her late father’s assistant Sheila (Sionne Elise), whom Jane learns was her father’s lover.   She also runs into Aiden (Seth Gilliam), a handsome former love interest from high school who still remembers Jane fondly.  Aiden, we learn, is now widowed.  Could a true romantic connection with Aiden, who favors monogamy and small-town life, be a possibility?  Will Jane finally find some degree of closure with her knotty relationship with her father?   Thankfully, we do get the answers to these questions… but there are many more revelations in store for both the main characters and for the audience along the way…  

Directed by Philip Cruise, The Sex Writer is unafraid to tackle some serious subjects, but there are a good number of laughs in the play as well.  The dark humor comes mostly from the unblemished, idealistic attitudes of Jane’s students, who have high hopes for achieving wealth, fame, and reverence from their writing– despite the fact that, ironically, those achievements didn’t bring happiness to Jane’s idolized father.  The unflinching cynicism that Jane has in regard to writing in general can easily be applied to almost any other art form, raising the eternal question: “Why do we do it?”  Tammi Cubilette is perfectly cast as the smart, sassy, and no-nonsense Jane.  We watch Cubilette’s character navigate through a series of unlikely sexual situations, both real and imagined. (Her fantasy about a threesome with two hirsute, sweaty, grease-stained AAA mechanics named Chad and Chet [Jim Hawkins and Philip Cruise respectively] seems more like the stuff of a vintage X-rated VHS tape than of reality.) We wonder if Jane’s liberated sexual attitude could have influenced her decision to become a “sex writer”, or if her profession influenced her liberated attitude; In other words, was it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or, maybe, it had something to do with her upbringing, which the audience learns more about later in the play… Regardless, when Jane finally reunites with Aiden, played excellently by Mr. Gilliam, we are relieved that she has finally met a more realistic love interest; this is largely thanks to the personal magnetism which Gilliam brings to the character.  The supporting cast is also excellent, with all the secondary characters offering a fine mixture of realism and quirkiness.  The Sex Writer is highly recommended!

The Sex Writer runs through November 17 with performances Wednesday – Sunday at 8pm, and Sunday’s at 3pm (no performance on Thursday, October 31). Running time: 75 minutes. The Gene Frankel Theatre is located at 24 Bond Street (Between Lafayette & Bowery), New York, NY 10012. Subways: 6 to Bleecker Street, B/D/F/M to Broadway/Lafayette. The cast features David Arthur Bachrach (As You Like It/Frog & Peach), Olivia Baseman (The War of Woo), Philip Cruise (Final Boarding Call/WTP/Ma-Yi Theatre Company), Tammi Cubilette (House of Buggin’), Sionne Elise (The War of Woo), Callie Fabac (Clown Bar 2), Seth Gilliam (The Wire/The Walking Dead), Jim Hawkins (Clown Bar 2), Christopher Lee (Clown Bar 2), Edward Miller (Last Bar at the End of the World), and Jack Morrill (Walk Up Theatre Collective).  The creative and production team includes Holly Pocket McCaffrey (costume design), PJ Mapother (lighting and sound design), and Tommy Pegan (stage management). Produced by Thin Duke Productions in association with SparkPlug Productions, with Philip Cruise, Seth Gilliam, Christopher Lee, and Edward Miller. Visit Thin Duke Productions Presents: THE SEX WRITER for tickets.