(un)conditional

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Although the advance press materials suggest that Ali Keller’s (un)conditional, the 2024 Lighthouse Series winner at SoHo Playhouse, is about four people who become sexually involved with each other, it is, in fact, about two separate couples with different sexual problems that eventually become one story when it transpires that two of the people know each other from work. Director Ivey Lowe has used a suitably light touch to deal with this delicate and sensitive subject matter. While the play is never erotic, it may be the most intimate play you have ever seen so far. The actors playing the two couples are excellent at handling this tricky theme, one that cries out to be addressed more often even though it may make some uncomfortable.

In each case, a wife of ten years is unhappy in her relationship with her husband, while the husbands seem unaware there is a problem that is wrecking their marriage. Kyle thinks everything is fine with his marriage when on his tenth wedding anniversary his wife Valerie informs him that she is not satisfied and wishes to do some role playing in the bedroom where she takes the man’s role. According to Valerie, Kyle has never taken her needs or wishes into consideration in sex and has only been pleasing himself, without regard to her. She accuses him of seeing her as nothing but a “bunch of holes.” Ironically their seven-year-old daughter Mia has problems with picture book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein as she rightly perceives that the book advocates women always giving while the men never reciprocate.

In the other relationship, when Lenox married Hank she knew about his problem but chose to think that she could cure him: Hank is attracted to prepubescent little girls, although he has never acted on his desires. When they met, Hank had just been fired from his tutoring job as some parents seemed to think it was undesirable for him to be around children due to unfounded rumors that may well be true. While Hank does not want children – he might be attracted to their friends – Lenox who has wanted a family very badly has made do with his lack of interest in adult sex. However, now she has decided that she is not content and attempts to seduce Hank by putting on various costumes that are intended to put him in the mood.

All this comes to a crisis when Hank and Lenox meet Kyle and Mia in a Target store to shop for Halloween costumes. Not only do Kyle and Lenox know each other from work but Mia immediately takes to Hank. When the couples begin to socialize, Hank is confronted with a problem that he can’t deal with.

While the play is very episodic as in a screenplay, the actors are so convincing that they carry it through the many set changes from one home to the other. Brooks Brantly is very believable as the husband who has been unaware that he is not taking his wife’s needs into consideration but wants desperately to save his marriage. Kate Abbruzzese is a bit off-putting as the wife who has never expressed her needs but has expected her husband to understand her frustration. As Lenox, Annalisa Chamberlin is very sensitive as a woman who understands her husband’s problem but thinks they can overcome it together. Nathan Darrow’s Hank is dour, introverted, and reticent, trying his best to hold on to life as he knows it.

Playing a precocious but bratty seven-year-old girl, Georgia Waehler who is obviously not a child is hilarious as a grade schooler who seems wiser than the adults. She is also terrific at causing trouble wherever she goes, doing things to get attention as well as having her own way. In the end, it is she who explains to Lenox all she doesn’t understand.

Lindsay Fuori’s all-white set for the two homes (interrupted by the elaborate Target setting) is clearly arranged so that the changes from one to another take almost no time at all. The attractive costume design of Olivia Vaughn Hern puts the characters in multiple outfits making the passage of time very clear. Kat Morrill delineates the various times of day for each scene. Sound designer and composer Elliot Yokum is responsible for the many types of music that separate each scene. Hannah Tarr’s fine work as props supervisor is very much in evidence for both the adults and the seven-year old child.

Not only does playwright Ali Keller have a fine ear for natural dialogue but she also astutely builds her character development so we really feel we have known her people over a long period of time. Writing a play on a topic that might be both cringe worthy or embarrassing, Keller has done a great service broaching a subject that rarely gets treated on our stages. Riveting theater, (un)conditional has a cast that both understands these people and is able to telegraph many feelings and desires often left unexpressed. Director Ivey Lowe has helped make this a memorable evening in the theater on a most unlikely subject.

(un)conditional (through October 26, 2025)

SoHo Playhouse, 15 Van Dam Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.sohoplayhouse.com

Running time: 100 minutes without an intermission