Few playwrights love to scratch an itch more than Bruce Norris. “Clybourne Park,” his Tony- and Pulitzer-winning hit, took on race relations and gentrification with acid wit.
For his new play, “Domesticated,” Norris set another big target in his crosshairs: the war between the sexes — and here, it goes nuclear.
But while the show is well-crafted and often bitterly funny, it also lacks the even-handed heart that tempered “Clybourne Park.”
The starting point is familiar: A high-ranking government official, Bill (Jeff Goldblum), stammers through an apology at a lectern, while his seething wife, Judy (Laurie Metcalf), stands beside him.
Turns out, Bill’s encounter with a prostitute went terribly wrong. And, unlike most politicians’ wives, Judy kicks him out.
But as the title indicates, “Domesticated” is interested less in headline news than in mating habits. To drive the point home, there are brief interludes of the couple’s young adopted daughter, Cassidy (Misha Seo), giving a school talk about sex differences among animals.
We enter aggro Neil LaBute territory as Bill becomes more and more frustrated by the unfairness of it all. True, he spent tens of thousands of dollars on hookers — but Judy didn’t satisfy him sexually, and besides, men aren’t wired for monogamy, right?
“I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life in a submissive, apologetic crouch, basically for behaving like a man,” Bill complains to his lawyer and one-time lover, Bobbie (Mia Barron).
Anna D. Shapiro (“August: Osage County”) skillfully directs a great cast, with Goldblum and Metcalf doing superior work. His Bill is a frustrated, passive-aggressive weasel, while her Judy exudes fury and resentment from every pore.
But Shapiro has her work cut out for her. For one, the show’s performed in the round, so we often watch somebody’s back during a key scene.
Another problem is that the leads disappear for long stretches: Judy dominates the first act, while Bill owns the second as he tries to return to his old job as a gynecologist.
Bill gets more and more victimized by harpies, from his new boss to his 17-year-old daughter, Casey (Emily Meade), a vindictive brat.
Though the play becomes more sympathetic to the male side of things, it’s not much of a victory. You’ve got to hand it to Norris: He hits where it hurts.