The Innocents starts out as a narrative by Daniel about himself and close friend Edie and his one-night stand with Liron, a young Israeli he met at the airport. Then it shifts, with few exceptions, to dramatic scenes. In San Francisco, where Daniel and Edie are trying to have a baby, such a couple seems not to be unusual. Sutter, a young student who needs Prof. Edie's help to keep his scholarship, seeks her as a lover. Liron wants to stay with Daniel. Will Sutter and Liron conspire, or what?
The four play out their changing relationships in Daniel and Edie's apartment and in bursts of street activity with Daniel sometimes riffing, probably meant to act as a nontraditional protagonist. (Author Drukman teaches playwriting at NYU and used to be on the staff of American Theater, which highlights new, newer, newest kinds of plays and productions.) There are cinematic spots on both side stages and also scenes of couples talking under sheets and blankets, standing against their bed mattresses (a variation of an old vaudeville trick). Director Anders Cato appears up to it all.
The drama's structural twists may aim to parallel incitements and motives. Shifting desires and, as a possible consequence, loyalties take over the action. As the characters' attitudes conflict, their values get confused.
It's almost a shock when the play returns to the matter of the baby so long desired by its parental friends-couple. And where does it go from there? Has their innocence been shattered, or did it really exist before the young men entered their lives? Is the author at a loss to hint at or reveal a logical conclusion, or has his structure become circular?
To me, the actors outshine the script. Kate Hampton demonstrates what realism is all about. Jud Williford succeeds in making Daniel worth caring about. As for dynamism, Scott Kerns' Liron would be hard to equal. Because Sutter is so obviously conniving, Jason Bradley doesn't get to make his character as enigmatic as the others. Yet he serves the part well.
Panels of colorful townhouses, with a Haight district sign at center always lit, surround the stage. They're needed to set the locale because the inset is a simply furnished but adequate modern apartment that could be anywhere. But then, so could the costumes. And coupling as in the play.
