Also this issue: Momma Drama David Wise channels his grandmas into a show with everything and the kitchen sink. -Debra Auspitz Jazz It Up -Juliet Fletcher Trio with Brio -David Shengold Get Lost -Toby Zinman Street Smart -David Anthony Fox Q&A with Merián Soto -Interview by Deni Kasrel Cry Havoc -Toby Zinman Tied with Strings Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim ponder music’s place in the world. -Andrew Ervin

January 23-29, 2003

theater

PROK

by David Anthony Fox

Combine "Prok" (the title) with "Brick" (the theater), and you get "Prick." Seems fitting, somehow, since the play is about Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, sex surveyor extraordinaire, notorious for his (wait for it) titular report.

But let me not indulge in sophomoric jokes. Prok doesn't. The new play by Brian Drader (which won the 2002 Brick Playhouse Award) is a work of seriousness -- at times to a fault.

Prok, seen through the narrative eyes of Kinsey's often-beleaguered wife Clara, charts the researcher's complicated double life as he gathers data for what will become the most controversial study of the 1950s. Kinsey is an esteemed academic (the title is a contraction of "Professor Kinsey" and became his nickname). He can -- occasionally -- be scrupulous in his methodology and admirable in his detachment. At the same time, as part of his work he collects the most intimate information from his students. "We're scientists: Everything is our business," Kinsey says, and follows this dubious practice. The play suggests that he fell in love with at least one male student -- and, complicating matters still further, Clara fell in love with another.

Is Kinsey an ethical scientist, committed to our understanding of sexuality? Or does he have a hidden personal agenda? Is he a devoted family man? A closet homosexual, whose "research" is actually voyeurism? A drug addict and self-mutilator?

Prok suggests that he's all of these, and the best thing about the play is its even-handedness. There are nuances here. There's also a lot of history.

It's all very earnest, and there's the rub. In seeking to avoid making a cheap joke of Kinsey, Drader has gone to the opposite extreme. Prok is so careful that it fails to ignite any sparks, a flaw compounded in Brick's ambling and awkwardly staged production. As seen here, the highs and lows of the story fall flat, and -- despite good acting by Don Preston (Kinsey) and Ashley Tappan (Clara) -- we never really care. (In an unnecessarily confusing bid for theatricality, a third actor plays all the other roles.)

Ultimately I found myself admiring many aspects of Prok without really enjoying it. It's possible that in a more compelling production, the play will seem stronger.

But would I reveal myself as a hopeless vulgarian to suggest that, given the topic, a wee bit of enlivening wit would not be unwelcome?

Through Feb. 2, The Brick Playhouse, 623 South St., 215-592-1183