Nude/Naked, Paul Hoan Zeidler’s study of sexual and social pathology, is now in a world-premiere run at McCadden Place TheatER. The play looks at the intense, complex relationship between photographer Bennett Duquesne (Bjorn Johnson) and his daughter Addy (Sorel Carradine). Although Bennett has earned kudos for his war photography (Syria) and his fashion shoots, he has become recently notorious for his graphic images of Addy, some of which involve nudity. The images, meant to be exhibited in a gallery as works of art, were posted on the internet by a disapproving prude and have become something of a sensation. The public, whipped up by the smirking, ever-salacious media, has come down hard on Bennett, calling him a pervert and a predator. It matters not that Addy, at seventeen, has not only volunteered to pose naked for her father but has demanded it of him, in the name of art. The story takes place in the Duquesne’s New Hampshire household (impressive multi-level set by Pete Hickok), circa 2017, and opens with the aftermath of a shooting. We soon learn that Stevie (Stephen Tyler Howell), Addy’s rich, spoiled boy friend, took a potshot at his obnoxious, drunken friend Julian (Lucas Alifano), putting him in hospital. Addy and her pal Dany (Asia Lynn Pitts) witnessed the attack. As a subplot, the violent, impulsive act is given a lot of attention by the playwright (too much, in my opinion, for it distracts from the story’s main focus and even feels disconnected from it. Addy’s manipulation of her father is what Nude/Naked is really all about. This strange need on her part has its roots in a horrific episode in her life, we eventually learn. To describe it here would be to give away too much; suffice to say that it involves a sex crime against her when she was fifteen. The resulting trauma is something she has never truly been able to overcome. The dark, tangled relationship between Addy and her father is a private thing, of course, but in our sensation-thirsty culture, the private often becomes public, with unfortunate results. Nude/Naked is to be commended for reminding us just how shallow and cynical much of our social contract is. The play, a semi-finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, is well-acted by its six-person cast, which includes Jonathan E. Grey as Bennett’s tough-talking lawyer, Hank.
