The sex is good, but little else is in 'Apartment'

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

Elliot, played by Jared Jeffries, right, has suffered a dislocated shoulder and twisted knee while engaging in torrid sex with Annie, portrayed by Clara Ann Chorley, left. Jeffries' character pretends that nothing is amiss despite his injuries in a performance of masterful physical comedy. Chorley, meanwhile, plays her role with cool self-possession and crisp articulation in Manoa Valley Theatre's "Apartment 3A," a play by actor Jeff Daniels. Advertiser library photo • Nov. 4, 2003 'Apartment 3A' 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays; through Dec. 7 Manoa Valley Theatre $25, $20, $15 988-6131

The play, by actor Jeff Daniels, centers on a thirtysomething career woman who's on a painfully slow rebound after finding her former boyfriend having sex on her grandmother's table with a female gymnast.

Annie, played with cool self-possession and crisp articulation by Clara Ann Chorley, moves into a new apartment and immediately strikes up a relationship with Donald (Gene DeFrancis), who says he is her next-door neighbor.

At work for a public-television station, Annie ignores Elliot (Jared Jeffries) who worships her. At Donald's suggestion, Annie agrees to accept Elliot's invitation to lunch. What follows is the most prolonged and pointless table conversation since that blind date you had back in college.

Yada yada yada.

I'm Catholic.

Yada, yada, yada.

Who cares?

If there's anything worth returning for after intermission, it's Jeffries' masterful physical comedy representing a man with a dislocated shoulder and bum knee, nonchalantly pretending nothing is amiss. It's a wonderful scene, but not enough to carry the rest of the play.

It seems that during intermission, the pair have returned to Annie's apartment and spontaneously engaged in torrid sex, some of it inspired by Siberian polar bears on a recent public television special. Growling is the key as Elliot gets his second wind for a session of oral sex — this time with Annie enjoying the pleasures of the dining room table.

Almost lost among the byplay is the curious way that neighbor Donald continues to float in and out of the scene, discussing events with Annie but unknown to Elliot. It's a bit of staging that seems to fit an equally curious set design by Joseph Dodd.

Dodd has built something of a three-ring circus. All the action takes place in a bare center circle bordered by empty door frames and unopened cardboard boxes — looking much like a department store display waiting to be unpacked.

In one side area stands a cello. The opposite side features a fallen crystal chandelier. Neither set piece is fully explained nor made part of the action, except for a passing reference to a musician in the building and some recorded music.

When the mystery of Donald — who claims to be much in love with his absent wife and says he wants only a platonic friendship with Annie — is finally revealed late in the play, it reverberates like a cheap shot.

Except for moments of genuinely quirky comedy courtesy of Jeffries, director Bill Ogilvie moves his cast with cool detachment. Chorley enacts the role, but lives outside her character who, even in the throes of ecstasy, is objective enough to count up her multiple orgasms. DeFrancis makes Donald unnecessarily bloodless and stiff.

But the production's worst failing is that it presumes the audience will care about the premise of an intelligent career woman hesitant to fall in love again. Hasn't commercial television desensitized us with a glut of those heroines? Ultimately, "Apartment 3A" may have sounded promising in the ad, but closer inspection shows it to be a worn out walk-up.