Closer Takes a Look at Modern-Day Relationships

by John MacDonald

Under the guidance of director and senior theater and English major Patrick Mulryan, a small group of Oberlin students produced and performed British playwright Patrick Marber’s 1996 play Closer at Little Theater this week. Engineered both as a Winter Term and honors project, the performance of Marber’s drama focuses on the complications of love and jealousy in contemporary relationships. 

Set in modern-day London, the action pulls us into the troubled and chaotic love lives of Alice, played by senior Ria Cooper; Dan played by junior Nick Junkerman; Larry played by senior Roger Barker; and Anna, played by senior Molly Benson. 
The lights first fall on Alice, a stripper who has just been hit by a car and brought to a hospital by a stranger: obituary writer and aspiring novelist Dan. Flirting ensues before Larry, a dermatologist and a man who “looks like a criminal in photos,” enters to take care of Alice’s injury. 
We are soon introduced to Anna, a struggling photographer, and the story blossoms as the heroes fall in love, leave their lovers for the arms of another, feel guilt and jealousy and return to their first loves only to find emptiness and misunderstanding waiting to greet them. With a plot worthy of a day-time soap opera but with writing and acting that raises it far above the level of tawdry drama, Closer succeeds in mellowing our romantic idealism through its often cynical outlook on relationships.

Though unconvincingly British and at times over the top, Cooper and company avoid letting their characters become clichés. Both Marber’s excellent characterization and the equally fine acting of the players surprise the audience with the complexity, humanity and growth of their characters. 

Closer draws us in to the point where we are almost afraid to laugh at the genuinely funny moments because we are unable to separate ourselves enough from the drama to react. We begin to feel that even a giggle or two would disturb the tense action. 
The bare-bones quality of Little Theater functions as the perfect venue to display Marber’s multidimensional characters. By avoiding fancy set and stage concepts, set designer and senior Keith Friedlander and junior lighting and sound director Mark Williams do a fine job in developing a stark minimalist backdrop for the drama of the heroes’ love quadrangle. The black steel of the set’s furniture, built by junior Alec Longstreth, and the cheesy club music work well to communicate the play’s bleak message.
Closer is most rewarding to those who are able to relate to the characters’ intense, and often psychotic, relationship troubles. Though convincingly written and directed (the internet scene has to be seen to be believed), Marber’s play requires a serious audience willing to put themselves behind the shifting identities and graphically sexual nature of his characters. For though we may desire a clean ending, one that gives concrete answers to the questions Marber poses about love, jealousy, and identity, Closer’s cynicism just leaves us asking the same questions of ourselves. 
The play’s biggest trick may lie in its ability to seem mute on the subjects it brings up when it actually speaks volumes. Closer ultimately shows us that love, desire and identity are as individual and complex as the four characters in the drama.