Sexual Tension and Other Diversions ‘The Qualms,’ by Bruce Norris, at the Steppenwolf Theater
Charles IsherwoodJuly 14, 2014: Wait, is this a sex party or a debating society? You half-expect someone onstage to pipe up with this pertinent question during The Qualms, a new comedy by Bruce Norris having its premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater here. The four couples gathered at a handsome beach house for an evening of what was once called swinging are ostensibly frisky and ready to repair to the “party room” for some no-strings-attached frolicking. But even when the mojitos are blended and the marijuana machine has been fired up, they still seem to evince a distracting interest in arguing the merits of marriage, the toxins of materialism, the possible connection between puritanism and imperialism and any number of other thorny matters. That bowl of festively colored condoms sitting provocatively on the coffee table comes to seem rather forlorn, more decorative than useful. Mr. Norris, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park and several other dark comedy-dramas, has often displayed a keen interest in digging beneath the surface civility of contemporary American culture to reveal the amorality, venality and even brutality that lies beneath. In his ribald and funny if lightweight new play, which comes to Playwrights Horizons next season, the characters themselves are primed to shed the constrictions of social norms and set free some of their animal urges.
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