NEW YORK -- Just before "Unseamly" -- which bills itself as a play about "female sexuality confronting male corporate power" -- began on Sunday afternoon, artistic director Frances Hill was worried.
"I wish we had a younger audience," she told me. She wasn't sure how patrons at Manhattan's Urban Stages Theatre, most of whom appeared to be at least in their 50s, would react to the play's explicit verbal and visual sexuality and violence. It was the very crowd you'd expect at a Sunday matinée.
But I was ready for it. Or so I thought.
The story follows a 20-year-old woman's struggle to convince a lawyer to take her sexual harassment case against the chief executive of her former employer, a posh apparel company called The Standard. It's a thinly veiled fictionalization of the allegations made against former American Apparel CEO Dov Charney. In fact, the script was written by his cousin, Oren Safdie. The play has only three characters: Malina, the accuser; Adam, the lawyer; and Ira, the apparel executive.
For some time now, I have followed and written about Charney's saga. Charney, as he is wont to do with reporters, has called me on my cell phone before to discuss my stories. I have read, among other things, the infamous Jane magazine interview from 2004, in which reporter Claudine Ko describes Charney masturbating in front of her and a female employee multiple times. Before copyright lawyers forced Gawker to remove the video, I watched the grainy footage allegedly showing Charney dancing naked in front of two women while chatting on the phone. Charney, who denies wrongdoing, has never attempted to hide his intense and very public sexuality. Rather, he seems to celebrate it.
With all that in mind, I expected controversy. I hoped for nuance. And I trusted that there would be sensitivity. But, when my girlfriend and I left the theater on Sunday afternoon, we were both confused and disturbed by what we had just seen. The play shamed a sexual assault victim, gave more time to the motives and justifications of her sexual predator and, perhaps most appalling, tried to lighten the mood throughout with comical banter.
Here is a list of questions that, over a much-needed beer after the show, we asked ourselves:
- Why does Adam keep lecturing and shaming Malina as she lays out her case?
- Why, in a play about the sexual harassment and abuse of women, are two out of the only three characters straight men?
- Are anecdotes about Ira's neglectful high school girlfriend and sexually promiscuous mother supposed to justify his misogyny?
- Why is the script of a play about sexual assault filled with comical banter?
- Why does Adam press for details on whether Malina masturbated with the vibrator Ira gave her, but doesn't want in-depth descriptions of when he coerces her into sex?
- Why does the play seem to give more air time to Ira's version of events than to Malina's?
- Why do Ira and Adam seem to agree that adult men all share a fetish for pubescent minors?
- Why is the fact that Malina goes to a psychologist five days a week relevant to her assault?
- Why is Malina presented as a completely powerless victim? She's young, yeah, but c'mon, the woman was brave enough to seek legal council about what happened to her.
- How come the only time either male character listens to her is when she becomes hysterical or talks about sex?
- Why does the lawyer admonish Malina for allowing Ira to take naked pictures of her?
- Why is Malina so giddy about her potential settlement? Doesn't that perpetuate the sexist narrative that the women accusing Charney of harassment are just looking for a quick payoff?
- Why does Adam, the one character who promises to help Malina, end up becoming yet another man sexually preying upon her?
- WHY DOES THE PLAY END WITH MALINA MAKING A BETTY BOOP FACE AS ADAM GRABS HER BUTT?
- Why did we go to this?
"Unseamly" opens Oct. 14. Tickets sell for $55, but you'd be better off donating that to Paving The Way, a nonprofit that fights against sexual violence.
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