Fiji

Theatre by the River—The Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (U of W)

If you think you know what this show is about, yes, it’s exactly what you think it’s about. Yet another take on online dating, fused with a not-unusual comparison between consumption and sexual relations, the piece explores the unknowns, conflicting expectations, and navigation of consent up to and including extreme taboo. While the subject matter is provocative, but not unexpected, the production itself struggles to fully justify the transgression.

The earnest exploration of desire, obligation, and imbalances of power in intimate relationships weighed down the more comedic elements of the piece. The quippy dialogue wasn’t quite enough to elevate the somehow tedious will-they-won’t-they plot and the heavy handed metaphor for the importance of both consent and pleasure in intimate relations.

More concerning is the lack of clear framing around the play’s most disturbing themes. Perhaps in its original UK context, the tone felt more safely ironic, but given the current socio-political climate, especially next door in the United States, it’s worth questioning the wisdom of mounting a work that grapples with the the legality and morality of living out, or suppressing, deviant but ultimately consensual desires. Pushing that envelope ambiguously risks feeling less like provocation and more like negligence.

Ashley Frantik