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But Mamet changed the ending after the first production to feature Danny and his loutish chum, Bernie, sitting on the beach, sizing up and harassing the women who pass by. In Marisa Wegrzyn’s new play Diversey Harbor, set in the same north-side neighborhoods explored by Mamet more than 30 years ago, the ex-lovers end up falling asleep together in front of the television after a night filled with troubling encounters. Maybe it says something about the evolution of dating since the toxic Lincoln Park singles-bar scene anatomized by Mamet that Wegrzyn’s contemporary characters reach out to each other for comfort, even if they’re no longer involved sexually. Or maybe Wegrzyn, a Theatre Seven ensemble member and a rising local playwright (her The Butcher of Baraboo was featured in Steppenwolf’s “First Look” new works festival last summer), simply doesn’t have Mamet’s polished but pitiless sensibility.
It’s interesting that a writer from a generation frequently excoriated for its short attention span can craft a play so lovingly attuned to long-form storytelling, whereas Mamet’s piece relies on short blackout scenes and the trademark staccato rhythms that would soon be imitated by lesser writers and parodied by Second City (whose sketch-show formula helped provide the inspiration for Sexual Perversity in the first place). Brian Golden’s simple, sure-handed staging and the endearing vulnerability of his young cast weave a haunting spell as the pieces of Wegrzyn’s puzzle fall together.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Sexual Perversity in Chicago photo/Johnny Knight.
