Toni Bentley has worked with director Zishan Ugurlu to bring her 2005 semi-autobiographical erotic novel, “The Surrender”, to the stage. The story is that of a woman's personal awakening to a level of intimacy and emotional exposure that is brought to the reader -- now, the audience -- in the form of sexual escapades and taboos. It is brought out via her sexual exploration and her surrender to a man through the act of anal intercourse.
The play, which was first mounted (pun intended) in Australia, is one of the edgiest this author has seen, and yet comes off just short of comical. When we read lines like “As he enters me I let go, millimeter by millimeter of the tensing, pulling, tightening, gripping” and “Sodomy is the ultimate sexual act of trust” in the privacy of our own mind and alone in a room, they can take on a weight and poignancy. This is much harder to achieve when the very same lines are spoken aloud, on stage, while we sit next to strangers.
Such was the challenge of the creative team and actress Laura Campbell, who stars in the New York version of the show. Ms. Campbell, better known for her work in movies and on TV than on the stage, is a spectacular beauty, arriving on stage in stockings, garters, stiletto heels, and a silk negligee. In her boudoir, she recounts the events that led to her sexual and emotional awakenings. Speaking as Toni Bentley -- a former dancer with George Balanchine's New York City Ballet -- she recalls her years at the ballet bar, forever turning out from the hips and screwing her pelvic muscles tighter like a corkscrew, before discovering a man that would change her world. It is true that dancers do “live in their bodies” -- and think with them, too. So it is easy to understand how such profound physical sexual release could have an even more life-changing effect on a dancer than even on an average person.
Given the limitations of the material -- there is little in the way of plot, or subplot, so it occasionally gets repetitive -- the creative team was smart to keep it to a short 70 minutes, rather than to try and stretch it out, as so many other productions do unsuccessfully. Even with the reduced length, the material that actress Laura Campbell had to cast to memory was tremendous. So much of it was personal and greatly nuanced, and Ms. Campbell's performance was excellent. She was engaging, alluring, fetching, and emotionally revealing for over an hour, on stage, alone, in lingerie. Without a webcam, this can't be easy!
