SEX with STRANGERS stars Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) No Stranger to Excitement

Second Stage Theatre scores a major hit with its new 2 act, 2 actor play.  Broadway beckoned Anna Gunn (of Breaking Bad fame) as Olivia and Billy Magnussen (Tony nom. Vanya & Sonia…) as Ethan.    The play is set in the present at an isolated rural inn on a frigid night.  The evening is about to get heated.  Olivia, a prof. & aspiring writer, is there to write in solitude.   A stranger appears at the door pleading to be let in from the blistering cold.  He identifies himself as the expected, late other guest.  He too is a writer with a looming deadline.  A bumptious banter ensues & with wine & no internet or anything else to do, they do what comes naturally.  In between sparring & steamy sex, Ethan a lucrative  blogger/writer for his sexual escapade, plies literary accolades on Olivia's writing. Olivia quickly becomes a "cougar"& they pounce all over each other.  The literary cliches about selling out are heavy handed, but, what strikes a sharp chord are the generational divides between 20 somethings today vs. 40+ yr. olds.  Technology is a major benchmark.  Whereas Ethan can't function without being plugged in Olivia needs mentoring in modern tech applications.  Props abound on the well configurated sets, illustrating archaic relics in today's world:  photos, record albums, books.  Disturbing to Olivia & mundane to Ethan is the lack of social/sexual boundaries on the internet and the callousness in which women are treated as sex objects.  Most perplexing to Olivia is the concept that recognition is omnipotent, content is secondary, at best.  This is a 1st rate production with 2 actors at the peak of their game.  At times, the dialogue seems forced, but the reflections on seismic social shifts over the past 2 decades can be viewed as sexual & strange.