Fifth Date

The Gargoyle Players—The Gargoyle Theatre

Deeply uncomfortable and entirely uncompromising, Fifth Date is a show where the content warning are likely not explicit enough, but still skillfully addressed. The show itself was well acted and directed, with the two leads, on a fifth date brutally derailed by the admission of past guilt and sexual crimes, playing the parts well. The male lead himself was written to clearly reject the expected reveal of clear evil and recidivism. Perhaps too reasonable, his measured responses sometimes come off as slimy and all too real, in ways that his romantic partner and the play don’t react to in ways that make me unclear how obvious they were intended. This play is difficult, and for anyone with triggers around sexual assault, not a great choice, but for all that absolutely not unworthy of a watch.

Josh Fidelak