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Theater Review

Way back in 1926 that prototypical dirty blonde Mae West wrote and starred in a play simply called “Sex”. It played for nearly a year in New York but was eventually raided and shut down by the police. This summer the Shaw Theatre Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada has put on a revival of “Sex”. I attended the performance on Friday, August 23 and here I give something of a review.

The production was in the Studio theatre, the smallest of the festival’s 3 theaters. This is an about 300 seat venue with seats all around the performance area, an arena style layout. There was a full house. The action of the play takes place in several widely separate locales and the production design used a large number of old suitcases and trunks to suggest this. Costumes were in the original 1920’s style.

The main character, as played by Mae West herself in the original, is called Margy LaMont, a prostitute with some aspirations of getting out of that business. The play begins in the red-light district of Montreal. A British Navy unit is in town and Margy is particularly a favorite of a lieutenant from one of the ships. She leaves the apartment with the lieutenant and then a guy named Rocky, who also is living there, appears with an older married wealthy American woman named Clara. Alone in Montreal she is looking for an experience with a younger man. Rocky pllies her with several drinks “full strength
Canadian Club with a kick like a mule” (it’s Prohibition still in the US). To the last of these he adds some drug to knock her unconscious . This is not for sexual purposes, but so he can steal the large amount of expensive jewelry she is wearing. After he leaves Margy and the lieutenant return to discover Clara unconscious . She’s almost dead but Margy manages to bring her around.

The next act moves on with Margy “following the fleet” as the navy detachment has moved to Trinidad in the British West Indies. It begins with an energetic floor show in a night club in Port of Spain. At this club Margy meets a very young recent college graduate from the US named Jimmy, whose wealthy father has sent him to inspect a plantation that he owns there. In this production the part of Jimmy was played by a female actor, which was somewhat jarring but served to emphasize Jimmy’s youth and naivety . After the intermission the scene continues in Trinidad with Jimmy asking Margy to marry him. The British lieutenant has also asked to marry Margy but been turned down.

The final act is set at Jimmy’s parents house outside New York, where Jimmy has taken Margy to meet his parents. But, guess what, Jimmy’s mother turns out to be the same Clara who was drugged and robbed in Montreal. They hide their mutual surprise and then have it out in private. Then Rocky appears, attempting to blackmail Clara, who never has told her husband what happened in Montreal. Margy manages to drive Rocky away at the point of a gun. But she realizes that this life is not for her and reveals her past. At the same time the British lieutenant, who has now retired from the navy, shows up and Margy now accepts his renewed offer of marriage. He had decided to start a new life in Australia once he retired and Margy sets off with him, thus I guess providing a happy ending for her.

There is little of any dirty language in this play. Not even much of the double entendre and innuendo that one tends to associate with Mae West. There is certainly no nudity. The exhibition of the female form is not much in evidence either, remember that the 1920’s were when flat chests were in vogue in women’s fashion. The production had a fair amount of kissing and groping. Often the credits of a play list someone as “fight director”, this one had a “intimacy and fight director”.

To mention more about the history of the play (disclaimer, this is mostly just copied from the program notes) it played for nearly a year before being shut down. Critics didn’t like it, but is drew full houses, despite the fact that the title wasn’t allowed to be used in advertising. Mae West was convicted of “corrupting the morals of youth” and sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $500 fine. During the trial witnesses said it wasn’t so much what she said in the play bur how she said it. The publicity around all this was a great boost to Mae West’s career. Some have speculated that the charges brought against her were a preemptive strike against her next play. This was called “The Drag” and you can guess what it was about. Anyway it didn’t go forward.

All in all a nice performance, like most done by the Shaw Festival (I saw 8 plays here this year). I was especially interested to see this production since almost 20 years ago I remember seeing a biographical play about Mae West titled “Dirty Blonde “ which discussed “Sex” and the circumstances around it.




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