An at-home screen test leads to confessions of food issues and finally evolves into an admission of perhaps the most unexpected sexual fantasy imaginable. A quite unsuccessful and rather awkward first date is tempered by wine, body language, and oh so many words. Welcome to this evening of one-acts comedies, I WANT YOU TO and FEAR AND FRIDAY NIGHT.

The first play, I WANT YOU TO, briefly masquerades as a rote piece about the gawky novice filmmaker who invites his co-worker, also an actress, home for a screen-test to see if she can be in additional scenes. Where we would expect the filmmaker (Ken Forman) to be predatory, we meet a latter-day saucy wench (Monique Vukovic) instead. With the mouth of a swearing sailor and an attitude about sex that leads her to do it for the sake of it, the woman we meet here seems to be up for pretty much anything except for eating in public. She is not the only one with some food issues, and hers are nothing compared to the filmmaker’s, but if you want to learn his dirty little secrets, you will have to see the show.

In contrast, but also a little off-center is the second play, FEAR AND FRIDAY NIGHT, about the more traditional topics of rebounding and trying to get laid on the first date. Tied up in a neat little package, and starring Jicky Schnee and Grant Varjas as the dubious couple, the short work is a good counterpoint to the more extreme I WANT YOU TO.

If nothing else, these two plays are guaranteed to make you laugh.

- Kessa De Santis -

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