When I was a teenager, the leaders of my church youth group brought up sex a lot—mostly to tell you how off-limits it was. Sex is a gift bestowed on humankind by God, they’d say. But it should only be enjoyed within the bounds of heterosexual marriage. Everything else—adultery, homosexuality, pornography, masturbation, lustful thoughts, premarital hanky-panky, and maybe an especially satisfying sneeze—goes against God’s will.
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When we put a positive spin on this state of confusion, we call it innocence. And innocence—the burden of having it, the longing to get it back—is the major theme of Randall Colburn’s Hesperia, a play first produced by the Right Brain Project in 2010 and now getting a new production—the playwright’s highest-profile gig yet—at Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe.
It’s a world that’s easily, and sometimes deservedly, satirized. First, there’s the obsession with what people do in bed. Then there’s the powerful reek of unhipness given off by the devout thanks to their retrograde wholesomeness and irony-free sincerity. In Colburn’s play, young people sing corny praise songs, go to church socials, and talk casually about “getting saved.” At one point, we see a teenage boy memorizing scripture for a “Bible bee.”
He takes up residence in Hesperia and even flirts with getting saved. But his primary intention is to win back Claudia. He contents himself in the meantime with romancing Daisy, who, in Rebecca Buller’s spirited yet vulnerable performance, rushes headlong into the minefield of sex.
Through 3/18: Tue-Wed 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM, also 3/14, 2 PM, no 6 PM show 3/18, Writers’ Theatre, 325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org, $45-$65.
