Singlet

“A play that is at times frustrating, hilarious, and rewarding...Wrestlers and supermodels alike obsess over their weight, but is that where their similarities end? I doubt it after seeing this show. Director Jordan Fein doesn't underline such connections in his clean and simple staging, but he doesn't really need to with two actors like Davis and Markey, who seem to conjure a whole soundstage with their expressive performances." Full Review

"A rigorous inquiry into the erotics of nonromantic relationships, acted like a Meisner exercise and staged like a contact sport...Markey and Davis deliver most of their dialogue inches from each other’s mouths, as if they’re about to kiss, or fight, or both...'Singlet' coheres because of Markey’s articulate, generous writing, which poignantly refracts the experiences of being American, and female, and queer, and in love." Full Review

“The trippy ‘Singlet’...keeps a beads-on-a-string cabaret structure, slipping from one sequence into another to increase our disorientation...Markey and...Davis perform sexually charged, absurdist scenelets that have no clear connection other than the pair’s oddball magnetism...As it wears on, the jokes become so private that they lose the first section’s pinball velocity. Fein can’t quite shape the evening’s energy, though in the best of his blocking he keeps the pair uncomfortably close.” Full Review

“For Markey, pheromones are the project, and the great pleasure and power of their newest show — the mischievous, sweaty 'Singlet' — is witnessing the undeniable flow of real, layered chemistry between them and their fellow performer Emily Davis...'Singlet' walks right up to the edge of the easy and tawdry time and time again, but like a wrestler, it slips out of the hold...It’s more interested in tension than fulfillment, the unnameable sensations that pass between us and bind us." Full Review

“Intense performance piece...Replete with self-consciously arch dialogue, the script often brings to mind a role-playing, late-night improv session by two smart, spliff-toking college students, who are perhaps a bit too pleased with their own wit. But there’s no denying the discipline of the performance itself, and the rigorous matching of form and content throughout...Markey and Davis bring a gymnast’s vigor and precision to all their interpretations." Full Review

"It is an experience hard to categorize but, for the most part, easy to recommend...Fein’s approach can prove confusing. At least a couple gags fall flat because of vague mime work or an unclear sense of location...Yet the work’s angry energy overcomes its flaws...The fungible dynamics of 'Singlet' make it best experienced emotionally, rather than in a linear fashion. While that emotion may initially just be confusion, my feelings did shift with time." Full Review