Review - Sell/Buy/Date

One of my big theater-going disappointments is that I missed Sarah Jones' Bridge and Tunnel.  I should've gone and just didn't. Everyone I know who saw it loved it and I've been waiting anxiously for her next piece.  Happily, it finally arrived.  I even paid full price (ouch) to see Sell/Buy/Date in Manhattan Theatre Club's smaller space last week. Just to get the important stuff out of the way:  Sarah Jones was totally worth the wait.

Sell/Buy/Date is a solo show that examines the lives of sex workers and how the sex industry has changed the course of human history. The show takes place in an indeterminate time in the future and is in the guise of a college lecture given by a British sociology professor.  She talks about how the study 'began' in 2017, then describes events that take place many years into our future.

To say that Sarah Jones is a kind of acting genius is not really strong enough.  She plays more than a dozen characters - they're all 'subjects' of the study being taught in the sociology course. She plays an elderly Jewish woman, a Native American male stand-up comedian, an Irish prostitute, a college student majoring in 'sex work studies,' and many many more.  Each character is pitch-perfect in dialect, attitude, physicality - everything that makes a character more human and more relatable, Jones gets right.  I felt like I knew all of these characters and wanted to get to know them even better.  It's actually astounding and I couldn't really wrap my head around the brilliance of her performance(s). Oh, and some of those characters had conversations with other characters!  Dialogues between two characters by one brilliant actress - magic!  Added to that magic was the very real and pathos-filled back story of the sociology professor, which was just another layer of brilliance, as far as I'm concerned.  As each little bit of that puzzle was revealed, I was surprised anew.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Having a show about sex workers, the historical degradation of woman and then the reclamation of feminine power seemed especially timely and poignant during this contentious time in history.  I have personally been so depressed and saddened by the objectification and misogyny that has run amok in this country, thanks to a certain sexist, hate-filled campaign.  Things I thought were deeply buried in my past, my memory and my psyche keep coming out and getting replayed every time a woman's worth is questioned, or any time a woman is categorized merely by her perceived 'worth' as a sexual being. There have been many sleepless nights recently.  So to see a show that showed both sides, the power that some women feel when they take back their authority, and the shame that some women feel when their self-worth erodes was quite moving.

I will say that I thought the play could've pushed even farther into a dark place.  The show is pretty fast and often very funny about a very serious topic.  I maybe would've had more darkness and more pain to more sharply contrast with the very human and humorous pieces. Maybe have more of the character monologues either comment on or be a result of another character monologue. Or maybe even see some characters more than once, after they've learned a particular truth they think would benefit the 'study.'  But I guess that makes it my play instead of hers.  You know me, I like a good deep painful theatrical catharsis.  I probably left Sell/Buy/Date without that huge catharsis, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a huge, incredibly good time.  Sarah Jones' brilliance is something I'll always remember and I will never again make the mistake of missing one of her shows. Being in the presence of such a theatrical genius is quite rare indeed.  You should take advantage of it.