I promised I wouldn't ogle. They're naked. Winking bottoms; a man and a woman on stage, starkers, boobs, balls, flesh. Stop thinking about it. Just ask yourself this question; if a character is nude, is that nakedness a negation of societal forces on our judgment leaving the character free to be a pure font of humanism or is it just a titillating gimmick?To the story: this is the original boy meets girl. You know the characters Adam & Eve. Just like in the Bible, she's smart, Adam, of course grunts with the monkeys and doesn't know Jack. Off they wander into Eden separately, exploring, full of life with hearts pounding. Meet they do, but Adam lacks interest and even comes across as a bit of a sour puss. He resents her intrusion but they plan to meet again. She wonders if he will ever come. All over her face is the look of guileless fascination but this new perplexing animal forces her to resort to cunning. Linguistic talents about with this lady; she names the flora and fauna like some etymological missionary. Position this against Adam's bewilderment (she even names him) and you have the classic odd coupling story.I said stop thinking about it. Continue. Eve is exhilarated from her rides on an elephant into the garden. He's not fast but very thorough. He lifts me up with his trunk...leaves me speechless, and a black panther whom she rides very fast. OK, even the writer was thinking about it. Moving on with what this is all about. Adam and Eve are keenly aware of their solitude. Adam observes it's quiet here...too quiet while Eve penetrates deeper; Who am I, what am I, where am I?. Clearly, they are both incomplete, despite the bountiful wonder around them. Their ponderings voice the longing, deep within each of us, to want and to be wanted by another. It makes one wonder why we differentiate between men and women by the genitalia displayed on stage. We say 'the opposite sex' but the familiar lifetime attachment to one person arises from what is in common rather than what separates. The performers evoke subtle human tremblings of emotion with gentle grace and clearly defined edges. The innocence of first love is captured in an endearing portrait by both with their breezy appeal. The dramatic question holding this piece together is 'Will Adam & Eve meet'? We know from the Bible (or history as creationists like to call it) that of course they do. So that leaves us with the way they meet or a probing into the lives of the first man and woman. There are social abstractions, our human state of disarray, guilt, gender issues, original sin and a giddy million other themes to scorch the mind and explore with imagination and gusto. But none of these are sufficiently tackled substituting naked appeal for genuine insight. An obvious reason for this is that we are only getting half the story. James Still's play has a second act where contemporary Adam and Eve are in their forty's enjoying high powered careers - at the cost of their relationship. What are they going to do rekindle the world's first and greatest love? Ah, now we have a play. But with that second act missing we are left with a cute, fleshy version of boy meets girl. None of this was lost on the late night audience. Searching for Eden plays at 12:25 am and waiting outside with the mostly male audience evoked the feeling of a local downtown strip-club. Eyes were downcast to avoid beet-red glances . Once inside, a grizzly guy beside me was wolfing down a bag of chips and from the smell of him, straight from the pub. His rustling noises were distracting but he was definitely enjoying himself. I felt at times beguiled by the simple innocence of Eve and her nakedness was nothing more than an endearing, vulnerable purity, but when thrown by the script, I was in the grizzly guy's corner ogling.
