Good Neighbor Policy: The Couple Next Door

by Thomas Dooney

Could Western New York be on its way to becoming the wife swapping capital of the nation?

Not long ago, community consternation with a Grand Island motel renting rooms for a swinger's party made headlines. This week, another such party booked into a Lockport fire hall was canceled, again with a no-no from the neighbors.

Now we have Donna Hoke's play, the The Couple Next Door, performing through the coming weekend at Road Less Traveled Theatre in downtown Buffalo. In it, two husbands and their two wives exchange more than Christmas cards after a friendly evening of dinner and drink. Rather than suspicions raised by the community, TCND raises the questions each of the foursome ponder about sex outside their respective marriages and, consequently, the quality of love making and love at home.

Over on Honeysuckle Lane, Sadie and Vance are typical in that, ten years after the honeymoon, they have fallen into expected patterns of dissatisfaction. Sadie says slacker Vance doesn't do chores around the house. Vance volleys that straight-laced Sadie doesn't live up to marital chores in the bedroom.

Also on the block are Janet and Rich. They seem very happy and...well, a little more hip and a bit more fun, leading Sadie and Vance to wonder what shade of green the grass is just over the fence. Rich amuses Sadie with friendly chat when they meet taking in the mail. Sadie loses control when, afterward, she realizes Rich's questions had veiled meaning to which she, unknowingly, has been giving alluring answers. Prompted by mutual curiosity, a dinner is arranged.

A chocolate soufflé was supposed to be the dessert.

Donna Hoke has built a foundation on a delicious concept for a play, similar in its way to Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde. In that play, over the course of ten scenes we see ten different couplings, each pair seen before sex and after. The pre-coital scenes in LaRonde are shaped by longing and need. Sex changes everything. In the post-coital scenes, the change most often seen is the need for somebody else. Someone is always ready to move on and someone is always available to move in on.

In TCND, Hoke's characters are more self-reflective than Schnitzler's. They stew and share with each other thoughts on fantasy and trying to make fantasies real...on jealousy...on attraction...on fidelity. They talk for days about what happened on Fun Friday. Not to diminish the need for couples to communicate, more dramatic action would enhance this script-in-development and, likely, bring about in its resolution with efficiency.

Much of the discussion glosses the surface when Hoke's intentions seem to be to delve thoughtfully into these lives. Americans are already fluent in the sex related issues in TCND since they are recounted on television, in the movies and daily conversation in lives. (Why we as a nation are so coy about sex despite its constant discussion is a mystery.) A writer intelligent as Hoke clearly is could handle more difficult aspects in her play. Forgiving the shamelessness of wordplay, Hoke should be encouraged to go faster, harder and deeper.

Donna Hoke can be credited with making two important choices that give substance to the script. Vance is employed as a zookeeper. This prompts conversations about the sex lives of animals in nature...which species are friskier than others and which critters keep it in their own caves. How birds and bees do it makes for comparison of human temperaments.

In addition, there many references early on about food and drink. Conversation about flavor, vintage and so one help make tangible a certain sensuality and enforce the playwright's look at appetites beyond the kitchen. (There is a full page ad on the back of the TCND playbill for wine tasting classes. Not sure if this is inspired by the play or not, but it was smart of Premier Liquors to advertise on this occasion.)

The play comes from RLTP's New Play Workshop and how good it is to see an increased flow of material from that program to full staging on the RLTP's own stage. Performance and production strengthen this script. The four member cast is skilled. Their respective approaches augment Scott Behrend's direction.

All in all, production of TCND is up to Road Less Travel's expected standards. Maura Simmons-Price's costumes are well chosen. There are distinctive choices made to delineate characters within the narrow range of everyday clothing. Playwright Hoke has scripted a scene that is a gift to costumers in which each wife takes suggestions on what to wear to the orgy. Simmonds-Price makes good use of this moment.

David Butler has created a set which presents the living room of each family and the sidewalk that connects their houses. The design is a study in the banality of suburban architecture and middle class decor, a perspective which imbues dominates Butler's prior work.

Who might like The Couple Next Door? This show has an easy-going, sitcom appeal that is more sexually frank and more genuine than an episode of Three's Company. The second act takes a turn toward the serious, which is good. If you can go with the flow on this one, you won't be disappointed.

The Couple Next Door (through October 10) Starring Kelly Meg Brennan, Natalie Mack, Luke Wager in the premier production of s play by Donna Hoke. Directed by Scott Behrend for Road Less Traveled Productions; 639 Main Street, Buffalo (inside the Market Arcade cinema). Roadlesstraveledproductions.org or (716) 629-3069.