Sex and Other Disturbances

Last night we saw Sex and Other Disturbances by Marisa Smith. When I read the script over a year ago, I had other thoughts for a poster besides that 3 letter word. The play touches many topics: marriage, aging, infidelity, female bonds, betrayal.

Anney Giobbe plays Sarah, desperate for attention as the wife of Alan, an accountant preoccupied with environmental collapse, and mother of an off-stage teenager. She meets a sexy younger man in acting class, Niko, who becomes the catalyst for her changing identity. She visits his Tribeca apartment, loaded with plants, like an exotic jungle, or garden of temptation. For some reason my first crude idea involved a pipe, plants, and a bra. You gotta start somewhere!

Many of my preliminary sketches involved figures behind fauna.

Sarah dashes between her Upper West Side apartment and Niko’s place here.

In this one, the male figure is frontal with Sarah hiding behind a big fern.

I tried working the title into the leaves, Sarah in her pink bra floating off-center above a Manhattan skyline.

I tried another composition with Sarah and her husband, Alan, at disjointed angles. He is oblivious to her distractions.

How about Sarah and Niko embracing behind the big leaves?

Same idea, different composition.

At this point, I got feedback from Marketing Director Eileen Phelan: “It’s a comedy. It’s about the women’s relationship.” When reading a script, sometimes I just miss the gist. I was asked to add the two gal pals in the background to one of my sketches.

This is the final illustration.

Melissa Sweet and Daisy Braun posed outside the theater with my poster.

The elegant set features a large window view of an urban sky that grows darker with consequences. Anita Stewart’s set design also employs a swiveling wall to reveal Niko’s lair. The contrast in worlds is cunning while the action moves seamlessly.

Sarah’s smarter friend, Ruth, (played by Jennifer Regan) has the best lines and the BEST faces. And Alan (played by Christopher Holt) performs a hilarious physical comedy that brought down the house.

Thanks to Portland Stage for rollicking theater. See you next season!