Stage Review: ‘Sex With Strangers’ in San Jose leaves you less than satisfied

The moment that author “Ethan Strange” rolls up to a bed and breakfast and meets fellow writer Olivia, something feels off. The age gap is the most obvious dynamic that doesn’t jibe, but it’s mostly the generational fissures that escalate every tension between the two writers.

Despite the cracks that are immediate, the pleasures of the flesh are too much to overcome for these two. There is a 40-something damaged writer still searching for a victory, and the young, brash hunk more than 10 years her junior who monetizes every inch of his well-chiseled pectoralis major.

While the San Jose Stage Company production of “Sex with Strangers” does what it can to keep a compelling narrative on the boards, it can’t help but illuminate the glaring deficiencies in Laura Eason’s script, which veers a bit too deeply into dull territory. Director Johnny Moreno guides the two-hander with some voluptuous and steamy strokes, and has a solid pair of performers to steward. But ultimately, the challenge of engaging with characters so unlikeable and self-consumed makes for some rough sledding on the silky smooth sheets.

Olivia (played by Allison F. Rich) makes it clear in the first moments of the play that her vibe is chilling on the couch with a good manuscript and a sizable glass of red wine. Two blizzards are at her doorstep, both literal and figurative, the latter coming in the form of highly fit Ethan (Matthew Kropschot), a man flirting with a writing deadline of his own. As he moves through her space shortly after his arrival, we learn that he is a young man who understands how to use new media to sell a world of fruitful fantasy.

There is certainly a thrill for Olivia in the disruption, from the lust driven by loneliness on her part and from the ambition emanating from Ethan. He is, after all, somewhat of a literary lothario who has crafted a world of experiencing women solely as conquests and trophies, and he has the Twitter pedigree to prove it.

Yet, it is unknown where Ethan’s fiction ends and his true self begins. Olivia, meanwhile, is trying to navigate a new medium, where the delicious scent of a book is replaced by the glowing, banal nuisance of a tablet. And if she can have some fleshy fun with a guy who might make Adonis blush, all the better.

San Jose Stage veteran (and associate artistic director) Rich is a performer who understands listening and rhythm, incorporating plenty of skill into the many roles she has performed for the company. This turn asks for much more consistent vulnerability, and there are nice moments when she is able to push Olivia away from a clear lack of agency in order to take control of the character. Kropschot leans into the slimeball nature of Ethan, a transactional louse. Yet despite their efforts, the chemistry between Olivia and Ethan feels like a slog in moments.

Eason’s script doesn’t do the effort any favors. Her narrative brings up some critical questions that are apropos for the moment — certainly that the tablet and its capacity for hordes of information has killed the joy of holding a book or newspaper, young consumers now choosing the immediate fix of a browser and a click. Yet some moments in this story are downright preposterous, including one discovery where Ethan’s true intentions, which Olivia just happens to overhear, play like a cliche.

While moments like these have explosive potential, Eason’s writing pushes away from volcanic eruptions between the two egocentric writers, instead choosing to kill any thrill as it meets the surface. With the play’s plentiful layers of misogyny and discomfiting circumstances, milk that will expire in five days has a better chance of outlasting this toxic and inane union.

There are some fantastic technical details that come with the setting that lives in two locations, the bed and breakfast as well as Olivia’s chic Chicago apartment. Maurice Vercoutere’s clean set design is matched beautifully with a magical and varied soundscape by designer Steve Schoenbeck. There are also delightful transitions that delve into metaphors from Derrick Scocchera’s projections.

“Sex with Strangers” is a mostly solid production of a not-so-solid script, one where an audience has to look past the incongruities of a plot in order to see the issues the play advocates for. To say these characters exhibit bad behavior is quite the understatement.

I mean, Ethan’s many misdeeds are horrible and get progressively worse as the story moves forward, but at least he still has nice arms.

David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and served as a juror for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Twitter: @davidjchavez.