Just Do It

Red Light Winter


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Published: Oct 18, 2006

Runs Oct. 20-Nov. 12, $15-$25, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., 215-922-4462

Sex sells -- for proof, just flip to the back of the paper. But that's not why Theatre Exile's founder/producing artistic director Joe Canuso picked Red Light Winter as this season's fall show. OK, maybe it's one reason.

"There's not only graphic language," he says, "but there is an intense sexual relationship that is very explicit in the play. It doesn't pull any punches, that's for sure."

Still, the themes driving the play are more than skin deep: The two-act work, written by Pulitzer nominee Adam Rapp, deals with two friends (Ian Merrill Peakes and Matt Pfeiffer) who travel to Amsterdam and pick up a hooker (Charlotte Ford), and the love triangle that naturally ensues.

"It's about the need for intimacy, how hard it is to make connections and how hard we keep trying to do so even though it seems impossible at times," adds Canuso.

Since the two main characters work in publishing, the dialogue is sharp and witty within a recognizable masculine vein. A funny, well-written show ... with nudity? Sold.