One of 2022’s finest productions has returned to the Davidson/Valentini Theatre even more impressive than it was last June thanks to an exciting new cast addition, a more polished design, and the once again stunning contributions of its gifted young director and the three returning stars who once again dazzle in Mike Bartlett’s provocative tragicomedy Cock.

Charismatic newcomer Marly Phillips Nicol takes over the role of 20something John, who’s just confessed to having cheated on his decade-or-so older boyfriend M (Sean Hemeon), and John is hardly reassured by John’s description of the woman (!) in question as “quite manly.” (Does she have big hands? Broad shoulders? A penis?)

What better way, then, for John and M to get everything out in the open than to have W (Annika Chavez) over for dinner, though once the decidedly not masculine young woman has shown up at their doorstep, all bets are off, and the subsequent arrival of M’s father (Dennis Delsing as F) only adds fuel to the fire.

As the confused younger man attempts to understand his sudden, unexpected interest in someone of the female persuasion, Bartlett’s 2009 play scores points for examining sexual fluidity at a time when the line between gay and straight seemed more etched in stone than it has become in recent years.

Bartlett’s script provides a director and cast with nothing but dialog to work with—no character descriptions, no scene-setting, no stage directions, zilch.

The playwright even goes so far as to mandate “no scenery, no props, no furniture, and no mime,” tough challenges for any director, but multitalented USC grad Taubert Nadalini is once again more than up to the task at hand, displaying one ingenious directorial stroke after another.

Nadalini stages several John-vs.-M confrontations with the two lovers circling each other like boxers in a ring, a spinning motif enhanced by the rotating ring of light which designer Hayden Kirschbaum projects down onto the floor of an otherwise entirely bare in-the-round set, and Kirschbaum’s lighting is even more impressive this time round on walls that reveal themselves to be translucent scrims when lit from behind.

Scenes transition lickety-split from one to the next, appropriately punctuated by a boxing match bell (one of sound designer Nadalini’s numerous striking effects) and enhanced by Caribay Franke’s expressive movement choreography.

In my June 2022 review, I called Hemeon’s quicksilver star turn as M “a stunner of a performance that’s as spontaneous and electrifying as it is heartbreakingly real,” and the same holds every bit as true in Cock 2.0 opposite a scene partner who gives as good as he gets.

Chavez’s W is once again the kind of woman you do not want to tangle with, especially if you intend to rob her of a man she believes she’s won fair and square; and Delsing’s F returns with a just-right blue-collar edge, one that makes his open-hearted acceptance of his son’s sexuality even more touching.

 Most memorable of all is cast newbie Nicol, a London-to-New York-to Paris-to Los Angeles transplant who proves himself every bit his costars’ equal in the most demanding of roles.

There’s a clearer differentiation this time round between the more life-experienced M and a considerably younger John. It’s easier now to see how M might have shaped and molded someone not yet twenty at the start of their seven-year relationship, and Nicol’s English accent suggests that John, as a foreigner, may well have been more prone to being influenced by a man more familiar with local life and customs.

 Cock is produced by Hemeon and presented by Clearglass Productions in association with the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Pedro Armendariz is production stage manager. Matt Richter and Edwin Peraza are technical directors. Patricia Sutherland is production manager. Ken Werther is publicist.

When reviewing the Fringe production this past June, I wrote: “Taubert Nadalini’s stunning take on Cock so surpasses Fringe expectations that it deserves to be held over or revived exactly as staged.”

Not only has that wish come true, Cock has made a triumphant return to the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center even more sensational than before.

The Davidson/Valentini Theatre, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles.
www.lagaycenter.org/boxoffice

–Steven Stanley
February 9, 2023
Photos: Lex Ryan

Tags: Davidson/Valentini Theatre, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mike Bartlett