Terence McNally’s Tony-nominated 1987 play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune forces us to remember that there was a time in which you could not use AI to improve your social media presence, and you couldn’t even hide behind texting as your main relationship power move. Laced with music that includes Debussy’s romantic “Clair de Lune,” this play dramatizes the constant back and forth between the romantic hopes of two characters and their dashed personal and professional dreams.
As the Bard once had Hamlet say, and as Johnny earnestly repeats, what we previously had were mostly in-person speech acts heard in real time, or maybe written on a page. You know: “Words, words, words.”
Before sexting, there was sex, and that is the springboard for the ying and yang of a nascent romance between the card-carrying Romantic Johnny, and the sarcastic and skittish Frankie, who has been traumatized and disappointed by past (and sometimes violent) relationships. Both have been hurt, and their distinctly contrasting responses to their pasts provides the tension between them as they figure out how to proceed with each other.
For better or worse, words were what you tended to use whether dealing with the awkward or the awesome after the not-so-proverbial one-night stand. Reminiscent of the 1986 film About Last Night with Demi Moore and Rob Lowe, McNally’s play hits a nerve with the “what happens next” dimension of such hook-ups, and this drama reels you in from the opening sex scene to the last wistful lines.
This thoughtful drama, with plenty of comic relief, relies so much on conversation, and it is a pleasure to watch the interactions between these two actors – Jay Sullivan and Callina Anderson. They dance around sensitive issues, trying to find the right words for the moment. Johnny’s interest in words and language, especially through Shakespeare, is a moving testament to his efforts to, well, show some effort, as well as a way to suggest the pull the two have toward each other: he wants to learn, and she wants to teach.
PSA: this show has some scenes of full nudity, so as Taylor Swift once wrote, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” That said, it doesn’t seem gratuitous, and underscores the vulnerability and the insecurities (along with some pure joy) of both characters in a realistic way. It’s also juxtaposed with comedy, as when Frankie, after hot sex, laments “God, I wish I still smoked!”
Happy Hour Readings in cooperation with Rec Room Arts is heading up this production. Emma Bacon and Brenda Palestina are the Co-Artistic Directors, with Bacon directing this show. This is the first full production for Happy Hour Readings which describes itself as “a community driven initiative” that has evolved from a monthly series of readings.
With a one-room apartment outside New York City, complete with a kitchenette and a disheveled pull-out couch bedroom set-up, we are drawn into the world of a waitress and a cook who work together in a Manhattan restaurant (set design by Lee Barker, and lighting by Hannah Kay Johnson).
With the moon shining in a window, we also know what Frankie sees through that same lens: a couple who has been together who never seem to speak to one another, another couple whose violent lives continue through a sick cycle of repetition and denial.
These seem to be the only choices sometimes to a cynical and scarred Frankie, convincingly played by Anderson. Featured frequently in Houston productions, Anderson has an impressive range of performances from tragic roles with Classical Theater Company to comedies at Main Street Theater. In Frankie and Johnny she takes on a leading role that shows her ability to convey serious issues with well-timed comic moments.
She is completely believable as she moves from defense mechanism to defense mechanism punctuated by moments of telling vulnerability. She tells Johnny to leave when he says something that triggers her, but she doesn’t mean it. We want to see if she will take a chance on love, no matter what has happened in her past.
In contrast, Johnny (a superlative Sullivan), has a more romantic, hopeful side to him, and the audience is so taken with his idealism-in-spite-of-hard-knocks that it’s hard not to hope that he gets the girl of his dreams who is “standing right in front” of him, an occurrence he considers a kind of cosmic miracle. Sullivan already gave a master class in acting in the recent Dirt Dogs’ production of another two person play, Venus in Fur, with Olivia Knight.
He really is a chameleon, able to embody almost any age, any emotional temperature. Few actors can get away with saying “I love you” after a first date. Not only do we not call 1-800-STALKER, we kind of get his urgency: he may be victim to the romantic notes of Debussy’s iconic “Clair de Lune,” a poignant song and a gateway drug to longing.
Plus, he isn’t getting any younger. He wants Frankie, and it’s kind of refreshing to see someone so authentically ardent. What we are socialized to think of as cringe-worthy seems a lot better than cruelty and indifference, and how was that working out for these two? It might not be Mr. Darcy, but at least it’s not tepid.
From hot sex to clothes under the bed to midnight sandwiches to classical music, the gritty realism of la vie quotidienne is starkly contrasted with the idealism of a real and lasting romantic connection with another person. Frankie and Johnny might be lovers with lots of baggage, but you hope they can unpack it together, put some of it away for good, start something new. With these two outstanding actors, you will think about how that might be possible for a very long time.
Performances continue through June 27 at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at Rec Room 100 Jackson 130C. For more information, call 713-588-9403 or visit recroomarts.org. $15-$35.