Jailbait

GRADE: A-

By Deirdre O'Connor. Directed by Suzanne Agins. The Cherry Pit. (CLOSED)

The Cherry Pit's inaugural coming-of-age play initially received a rare A grade, and it's only been slightly dragged down by subsequent reviews. Critics praise Deirdre O'Connor for writing a play about teenage girls picking up older men that is both funny and insightful, with only The New York Times's Jason Zinoman finding it at times predictable. Critics also credit the success of this production to the actors, especially Natalia Payne as naive Claire, and Suzanne Agins's direction, aided by Kina Park's sets, Rebecca Bernstein's costumes, and Pat Dignan's lighting.

Nytheatre.com A+
(Joshua Chase Gold) Director Suzanne Agins does a fantastic job of telling the story simply. Along with scenic designer Kina Park, lighting designer Pat Dignan and sound designer Daniel Kluger, Agins avoids being too clever. Instead she guides her actors to genuine connections with each other and revelatory discoveries within themselves. What could easily become melodramatic is light and comic, allowing the poignant moments to hit home... Scenic designer Kina Park must be credited with her incredibly inventive way of utilizing the space. Not only do beds, toilets, condom machines, and couches appear out of nowhere, but the color palette and incorporated lighting consistently juxtapose the world of the teenage girls and the adult world they so desperately want to be a part of. Deirdre O'Connor has given us a show that is at once funny, entertaining, intellectual, endearing, and at times heartbreaking. With a script that is spot-on, a director who has crafted a simple piece of human truth, and a cast with impeccable commitment, Jailbait proves to be one of the most enjoyable things I've seen in a long time. Go see it!

Variety A+
(Marilyn Stasio) The push-and-pull dialogue of a couple of idiot guys looking to get laid without any strings attached is glibly funny, in a "Two and a Half Men" kind of way -- until you recall that the sexy babes they're scheming to nail are 15-year-old girls who have no idea what they've signed onto. But O'Connor is no sitcom hack, and her stringent portrait studies have real psychological depth. Without immediately spelling out the whys and wherefores, she makes it clear that these cute guys are predators, and these innocent girls are every bit as manipulative as the guys. For all their supposed sophistication, both Emmy and Mark are using their wallflower friends to hide their own insecurities. And despite their demurrals of disinterest, Claire and Robert aren't above getting an education from their more experienced friends. O'Connor is amazingly good at rendering the tonal pitch and vocal rhythms of overheard dialogue, and she pounces on loaded expressions like having "fun," as a euphemism for sex, and acting "stupid," as a description of being in love. What gives her work depth is her insistence on exposing the complex motives behind her characters' rash actions.

That Sounds Cool A
(Aaron Riccio) "We're fifteen," says Emmy (Wrenn Schmidt), expertly putting Chanel on her friend, Claire (Natalia Payne). "Everything fun is illegal." Well, if that's the case, then Deirdre O'Connor's clever (but not too clever) Jailbait ought to be locked up. Of course, before one throws away the key, let's acknowledge the good behavior of this exceptional four-person cast, and allow director Suzanne Agins to get off with community service--that is, the continued performance of this wonderful new play... Jailbait's not a particularly complex play--in fact, the majority of plot points are fairly obvious. However, these "big revelations" turn out to be hiding a variety of sad, small moments, from the way Robert foreshadows a miscarriage by mentioning Goodnight Moon to the way Emmy's constant needling of Claire and her pride in not being an "awkward sophomore" (she's done it twice) eventually gives way to her childhood regrets. When things are said straightout, then--"I can't find my underwear"--they're absolutely shattering, and wholly effective in illustrating O'Connor's conceit: what happens when fantasy meets reality. Given rich theater like this, who needs parole?

CurtainUp A
(Deirdre Donovan) The language of the play is natural and convincing. It captures the patois of adolescents and the idiom of men who wear Brooks Brothers suits. The word "fun" — repeated time and again by the teens—-is a flippant reference to sex in the play, but, not surprisingly, the fun slowly disappears and sex takes on more nuanced meanings with each passing scene. What's more, the teens ultimately learn that sexual intimacy is no shortcut to growing up. O'Connor has managed to successfully write a play about sex without staging any risqué sex scenes where the audience becomes more voyeurs than viewers. In short, one learns that a good play about sex is not so much about displaying one's privates but rather concerns one's psychological makeup and capacity for commitment. The director at hand is Suzanne Agins, and a good hand she has. Two of her past forays in directing include Lucy and the Conquest and The Birds at the Williamstown Theater Festival, where she recently served as artistic associate director. She is one of the guiding forces behind the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, in which Jailbait was developed. Along with esteemed playwright Michael Weller, she has nurtured O'Connor's play from its earliest stages to this fully-staged production. Unlike so many writers of coming-of-age plays, O'Connor has the maturity to portray the strengths and frailities of her characters. Her play has a center of gravity and never spins off its axis—even when the characters spin off theirs.

The New Yorker A
(Unsigned) Deirdre O’Connor’s drama—well written, well acted, and well directed (by Suzanne Agins)—makes a strong inaugural production for Cherry Lane’s new venture, the Cherry Pit.

Theatermania A-
(Dan Balcazo) Costume designer Rebecca Bernstein has done a great job with character-revealing clothing for each cast member -- particularly the girls' clubbing outfits, which are markedly different from what they wear in the opening scene, set in Claire's bedroom. Kina Park's scenic design is deceptively simple, with furniture and other set pieces emerging from behind the walls as needed. Pat Dignan's lighting nicely sets up a contrast between the club and the other locations called for in the script. The plot has an admittedly predictable arc, but O'Connor is careful to make her characters multi-dimensional -- particularly Claire and Robert. Inevitably, the truth about the girls' ages comes out, but the playwright's sensitive handling of the nuances accompanying this revelation feels fresh. She avoids a moralizing stance, instead focusing on the human consequences for all involved, and leaving it up to the audience to ponder who's to blame, or if that's even the right question to ask.

Time Out NY B+
(Raven Snook) Underneath its Lifetime TV movie premise is a complicated and darkly comic cautionary tale about the illusion of intimacy at any age...Presenting sexual predators and their victims in a sympathetic or at least ambiguous light is a favorite game of playwrights (Blackbird, How I Learned to Drive) and, under director Suzanne Agins's unfussy hand, the talented cast expertly transforms would-be stereotypes into painfully real and complex people.

The New York Times B-
(Jason Zinoman) To be fair, Ms. O'Connor, whose pleasingly light touch with dialogue keeps the schematic plotting from weighing down the play, is less interested in provocation than in a clear-eyed picture of the confusion of sexually curious teenagers. In a scene the morning after the date, she has the audience exactly where she wants it. Mark shows up at his friend's house, jittery and in a panic. Did he find out their real ages? How did Robert's date end? It's smart to extend the big reveal to build tension, but stretch this too far, as Ms. O'Connor does here, and the audience starts to feel manipulated. The same goes for the occasional overexplaining of themes at the end. Keeping the audience's disbelief suspended is a delicate art--and once it's gone, there's little chance of getting it back.

Village Voice C+
(Rob Weinert-Kendt) In tracing the nightlife adventure of Claire and her precocious teen peer Emmy (Wrenn Schmidt), director Suzanne Agins gets fine work from her actors, but skimps on atmosphere. While it might be tedious to have actors shout over a pumping sound system during the club scenes, would a little ambience hurt? At its best, Jailbait evokes a more humane Neil LaBute—Robert's friend Mark (Peter O'Connor) is your standard-issue wisecracking misogynist—but what this production might learn from American theater's reigning misanthrope is that an emotional tightrope only transports us if it's kept taut.

Nytheatre.com A+ 14, Variety A+ 14; That Sounds Cool A 13; CurtainUp A 13; The New Yorker A 13; Theatermania A- 12; TONY B+ 11; The New York Times B- 9; Village Voice C+ 8; TOTAL: 107/9 = 11.89 (A-)