OF all the recent quirky characters in quirky plays, Jared (Jonathan Clem), the 21-year-old at the center of Annie Baker’s “Body Awareness,” is the quirkiest.
Super smart but unable to function in any social situation, he’s obsessed with the Oxford English Dictionary, sucks on a toothbrush when he’s anxious and is contemptuous of anyone who hasn’t read “Crime and Punishment.”
Jared’s emotional problems – including a costly addiction to pay-per-view porn – are wreaking havoc on the life of his mother, Joyce (Jobeth Williams), whose lover, Phyllis (Mary McCann), is a psychology prof at a small liberal arts college.
The arrival of Frank (Peter Friedman), a photographer specializing in female nudes who is showcasing his work at the college’s “Body Awareness Week,” spurs whatever slight dramatic action the play has.
Phyllis is appalled at what she perceives as his work’s sexism, while Joyce, who may be attracted to Frank, is tempted to shed her inhibitions and pose herself.
Joyce also sees the photographer as a needed male role model for her socially floundering son, and the visitor obliges with a “birds and the bees” talk, in which he advises the befuddled Jared in all too explicit fashion how to please a woman.
The playwright can’t seem to make up her mind – attempting to sensitively depict Jared’s condition while also constantly exploiting it for cheap laughs.
The actors are all fine, with Williams particularly moving as the emotionally beleaguered mother. But their efforts are not enough to make the play any more palatable.
BODY AWARENESS