THREESOME by Yussef El Guindi at 59E59 Theaters

     This is a difficult play to write about, in part because of my respect and fondness for the playwright, Egyptian-born Yussef El Guindi, who was a colleague at Duke a quarter of a century ago. After leaving Duke in the early 1990s, Yussef settled in Seattle, where he has had a successful career. Sex and Arab identity tend to be the major concerns of his work. If that sounds a bit solemn, Yussef has a wicked Rabelaisian sense of humor. All these elements intertwine in the best moments in THREESOME, a Portland Stage production that has landed on 59th Street. THREESOME is really two related one-act plays that would be stronger if they related more. Though they involve the same three characters, the two acts seem more distinct in tone and content than they need to be. El Guindi goes all solemn in the second act, unfortunately. He's at his best when he is outrageous.
     Leila (Alia Attallah), and Rashid (Karan Oberoi), are a handsome, seemingly troubled young Egyptian couple now living in America. She's a writer; he's a photographer. On the night depicted in Act I, Leila has invited Doug (Quinn Franzen) to join them for a menage a trois. Leila seems eager for this new adventure. So does Doug, who enters the scene naked and raring for action despite a decidedly unsexy bout of diarrhea. However, in the manner of recent sex comedies (Bruce Norris's THE QUALMS comes to mind), the sex never happens. What we do witness are various forms of male insecurity. Rashid become possessive and aggressive. Leila, for all her talk, never gets beyond a kiss. Doug is full of feelings of inadequacy. Since Quinn Franzen, who spends most of the first act nude, is handsome, well built and well endowed, it is difficult to see why he is so sensitive about his body. A number of self-absorbed characters in our universe manage to have sex: these three would rather talk about themselves. The men are more interested in putting each other down than in bedding the woman. The men are a cornucopia of masculine insecurities. El Guindi's writing is witty and literate, but one is left with a big question. Why does Leila want this threesome and, if she wants it, why doesn't she jump in?
     Act Two takes place in Doug's photography studio. He has been hired by the publisher to create the cover art for Leila's book. The book is supposedly an account of a brutal rape she endured in a Cairo police station and a commentary on the place of women in Islamic society. Doug has created a setting that represents all of the worst cliches of western Orientalia. It's textbook Edward Said. Oriental carpets, embroidered pillows, even a hookah. He wants Leila to be veiled from head to toe. When Leila balks at all the kitsch and the abaya, Doug convinces her that it will look ironic. Rashid comes in drunk and his horrified at the account of the rape in Leila's book, less for what she experienced than for the shame of it. He becomes a stereotypical middle-Eastern male and Doug becomes the ugly American, an aggressor in a sexual act than makes him as horrible as the men who attacked Leila. The second act would be better--even more thought provoking--with some of the humor of Act I.
     My frustration at THREESOME centers on Leila's character. She seems an intelligent, powerful woman who wants above all to have agency over her circumstances, yet at every crucial moment she is passive. Her acceptance of the role of victim seems totally out of character. The discovery of her horrific past in Act 2 only makes the attempt at a threesome in Act I more questionable. Does she really think two men having sex with her gives her more control over her body? Actually Doug is the best drawn, most coherent and interesting character. Rashid never becomes more than a stereotype.
     Chris Coleman has staged and paced the work effectively. All three actors are good, but Quinn Franzen stands out. He has the best material to work with, but he manages to make Doug both winning and deeply flawed.
      At the end, the audience didn't applaud until the lights came up for the curtain call, a sign that the ending of the play doesn't quite work. I don't think the audience believed the play was over. What does happen is too sudden and out of character.
      For all its flaws, THREESOME is worth seeing. Yussef El Guindi is always an ambitious, thought-provoking playwright who grapples with difficult questions in his work. I found the play frustrating, but I'm glad I saw it.
THREESOME. 59E59 Theaters. July 21, 2015.