Review of Stop Kiss
By Staff Writer Katie Tam ‘21
What could two nice, pretty girls possibly be doing at four in the morning on a park bench in New York? Well, kissing, for one.
But for the female leads of Theatre Intime’s latest production, Callie (Jessica Li ’18) and Sara (Rebecca Senatore ’20), this is no simple kiss. It’s a kiss that both have fought for since the moment they first met on a messy couch in Callie’s equally disheveled apartment. Their first conversation, admittedly, is a bit slow. They talk about Callie’s job as a radio station traffic reporter, Sara’s as a public school teacher in (gasp!) the Bronx, past relationships, current roommates, and Sara’s eternally absent cat Caesar. Their banter is far from smooth. Each sentence seems to hang in the air, and there are more than a few awkward pauses.
Perhaps, though, this is the show’s point: the bumps and obstacles in the way of friendship, and then, eventually, love. The strength of the play is certainly its strained but realistic relationship between the two main characters. The actors capture perfectly the competing sensations of the discomfort and excitement of getting to know someone new. Callie and Sara come to depend on each other for support, companionship, and a good time — whether it be drinking beers and playing cards or going out to a fancy restaurant.
Yet the good times don’t last very long. The main story of the play is punctuated with flash forwards to a rather mysterious incident. The audience gets bits and pieces of it as the show goes on: at first, in interviews with a certain Detective Cole (Sean Toland GS), and later, in searing scenes of Sara in a hospital bed.
Unfortunately, these interludes in the script come off a bit stiff. Detective Cole’s interrogations of Callie seem to serve the sole purpose of propagating the “ignorant policeman” trope. The supposed witness to the crime, Mrs. Winsley (Katja Stroke-Adolphe ’20) is straight-laced to the point of being comical. It’s tempting to imagine how the play might have gone with fewer of these scenes, or with Cole and Winsley removed altogether. The emotion of Callie’s responses to such a horrific event, though, is real. She breaks down as she recounts what really happened that night on the park bench, the night of her and Sara’s first kiss.
It’s gradually revealed that Sara is, potentially permanently, brain-damaged. One of the most touching scenes comes when Callie teaches Sara how to dress herself, guiding her limp arms and legs through the holes of a T-shirt and jeans. Without words, Callie’s actions express her commitment to her more-than-friend. This steadfast devotion is somewhat of a triumph for Callie, who spends the majority of the play “swerving” — between accepting her growing feelings for Sara and covering them under the veil of “just friends.” Does she truly love Sara? Or would she rather spend the night with George, her friend-with-benefits from college? Does she kiss Sara goodbye? Or does she simply close the door behind her?
Before the accident, Sara demands to know what Callie wants, and we do too — but it takes time, and patience. At first, Callie shies away from nursing Sara back to health, refusing the nurse’s offer to learn how to bathe and clean her. Soon, though, it’s clear that Callie must make a decision. Sara’s distressed family comes to hound her back to the “small town” of St. Louis, giving Callie disapproving looks as they sit together in the waiting room of the hospital. Sara’s urgent condition seems to raise the stakes for Callie, as she realizes the importance of sticking by what her girlfriend would have wanted: to stay in the once foreign big city that has now become her home.
In addition, Stop Kiss delivers frightening reminders of the continued dangers of simply being a woman in the city. In one scene, Sara recounts being cat-called on the streets while walking with an eight-year-old male student. She cries as she admits that the young boy was able to quiet the man, while she, a fully grown woman, could do nothing. Yet it also delivers wonderful bursts of humor. One night, Callie tries to cook a special dinner, only to produce a smell that could, according to Sara, not possibly be from food. And Callie’s observations of New Yorkers (why, she wonders, would anyone drive a car when there is always traffic?) are sharp and witty. Callie and Sara’s missed opportunities also provide a space for comic relief in a show that highlights continued violence and prejudice against gay communities.
In the end, Theatre Intime’s Stop Kiss is not simply a play about lesbians. It’s not even just a play about two people falling in love. It’s a play about the fights we pick and the sacrifices we make to express and proclaim that love, no matter what society thinks. It’s a play about standing up for your friends, standing up for your girlfriends, and standing up for yourself.
Stop Kiss ran performances at Theatre Intime from February 16th to 24th under the direction of Regina Zeng ‘18.
