There was a time, not all that long ago, when women didn’t acknowledge, never mind indulge, their lust and sexual appetite. This began to change in with the advent of the sexual revolution in the ‘”Swinging 60s.”
So it’s somewhat ironic that Neil Simon ventures into this territory from the vantage point of his male character, Barney Cashman.
“He is a middle-aged man who wants more out of life, and so he’s decided he’s going to have an affair,” remarked Gerrie Benzing, who plays Elaine Navazio in the comedy. “During this play, he tries to make connections with three very different women, and he doesn’t have a lot of luck along the way.”
Simon invests Cashman with a relatable pathos.
“He has this moment where he talks about how he started worrying that he was getting middle aged and that he was getting closer to dying, and that he hadn’t lived yet, and so this is the way he felt like he wanted to live,” Benzing added.
In fairness, psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques had only coined the term “midlife crisis” four years before Simon wrote the play in 1969. So it’s understandable that he’d focus on the interplay between men experiencing that phenomenon and the freer, fun-loving sexual mores of the late 60s. But the three female character s in “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” are far more enthralling than the inept, fumbling Barney Cashman.
This is especially true of Benzing’s character, Elaine Navazio.
In this scene, a wide-eyed Cashman asks Elaine if she ever had an affair with a veritable stranger before.
“I have… on other occasions… in other places… with other men …done the unthinkable, but if it helps your vanity any, you’re the first owner of a fish restaurant I’ve ever been with. In that respect, I’m still a virgin.”
Her answer changes the whole dynamics of the seduction that Cashman has going on his own head. But rather than admit that her considerable sexual experience undermines his fragile ego, he blames her for his inability to consummate their tryst.
“I’ve been called a lot of things in a lot of other places by a lot of other people, but I have never been called a depressant,” Elaine rails toward the end of their scene together. “You’ve got some nerve getting me up here in a furnished 1938 apartment in your shiny blue suit with your thimbleful of Scotch sitting there smelling your fingers, and telling me I give you the blues!”
Viewed from the perspective of its three female characters, “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” is more salient than ever on the reality that for far too many men, sex must still be on a man’s terms or not at all.
“Last of the Red Hot Lovers” is on stage at The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral through September 29th. For WGCU News, this is Tom Hall.
MORE INFORMATION:
The Belle Theatre is at 2708 Santa Barbara Blvd. in Cape Coral.
Remaining performances of “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, September 26, 27 & 28 at 7:30 p.m. and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29.
Tony Saracino directs.
Madison Tripp plays Bobbi Michele.
Donna Richman plays Jeannette Fisher.
Louis Monaco plays Barney Cashman.
For more information, visit https://thebelletheatre.com or telephone 239-323-5533.
