\u201cFor Want of a Horse,\u201d a play by Olivia Dufault receiving its world premiere in an Echo Theater Company production at Atwater Village Theatre, wants to have a rational conversation about a taboo topic that can provoke instant outrage. <\/p>\n
The subject is zoophilia, not to be confused with bestiality, though for many of us it will be a distinction without much of a difference.<\/p>\n
Calvin (Joey Stromberg), a good-looking, mild-mannered married accountant, has harbored a secret for much of his life. He has a thing for horses. His erotic interest began at an early age, and all his efforts to lead a normal life have left him depressed and contemplating suicide.<\/p>\n
His wife, Bonnie (Jenny Soo), is a permissive kindergarten teacher who\u2019s having difficulty restraining a girl in her class who has discovered the joys of masturbation. Worried about her husband, she discovers through his browsing history that he\u2019s once again visiting strange animal sites.<\/p>\n
She suggests he keep a horse, explaining that she doesn\u2019t want to end up a widow or divorc\u00e9e. Calvin is taken aback by her generosity but has come to recognize that his preference is more than a kink. It\u2019s part of his identity \u2014 and maybe the only part that makes his life seem worth living. <\/p>\n
Joey Stromberg and Jenny Soo in \u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d at the Echo Theater Company.<\/p>\n
(Cooper Bates)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
A horse named Q-Tip (Griffin Kelly) enters the couple\u2019s lives. A stable is secured, and the mare, who senses that something strange is going on, is indulged with apples and caresses.<\/p>\n
Kelly, a statuesque presence in a dress, harness and boots, brings the horse to life with wild, unpredictable movements. The sheer size of the animal poses a threat to humans. One kick, as Q-Tip herself explains in one of her thought-bubble monologues, is capable of penetrating a steel wall. But controlling an animal\u2019s food supply is an effective way of winning over its trust.<\/p>\n
Calvin has found support in the online zoophilia community. PJ (Steven Culp), a man whose current inamorata is a bichon frise, is considering moving to a country where zoophilia isn\u2019t illegal. He\u2019s tired of the shame and the secrecy. He\u2019s proud of his attachment to pooch, even if his thing for dogs has cost him contact with his daughter and ex-wife.<\/p>\n
Dufault doesn\u2019t shy away from sexual details. For PJ, intimacy depends on peanut butter. Calvin describes the physical signals that reveal Q-Tip\u2019s erotic satisfaction. The play occasionally descends into sitcom humor. (PJ says he\u2019s considering creating a human-dog dating app called Rin Tin Tinder.) But mostly the subdued tone steers clear of sensationalism. <\/p>\n
The production, directed by Elana Luo, is scrupulously well-acted by the four-person cast. Stromberg makes Calvin seem not only reasonable but surprisingly sensitive. Soo\u2019s Bonnie sweetly embodies the excesses of a kind of progressive piety. As PJ, Culp gruffly embraces his role as the play\u2019s polemical fire-starter. And Kelly\u2019s Q-Tip, in the production\u2019s most physically demanding performance, straddles the human-animal divide with theatrical aplomb.<\/p>\n
![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/32b57f7\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2100x1398+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc0%2F61%2Fa76b30e94b6ab81b5ae5f6a2d392%2Ffor-want-of-a-horse-7382.jpg)
<\/picture>\nSteven Culp, left, and Joey Stromberg in \u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d at the Echo Theater Company.<\/p>\n
(Cooper Bates)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
The open-mindedness that Dufault, a trans playwright, brings to the play creates some dramatic slack. Possibly the same fear of making value judgments that has inhibited Bonnie from imposing common-sense discipline in her classroom has robbed \u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d of a propulsive point of view.<\/p>\n
The play moves monotonously between Calvin and Bonnie\u2019s bedroom and the stable. Scenic designer Alex Mollo has worked out an efficient way of shifting between these realms by employing the same set of wooden trunks. But the argument of the play doesn\u2019t so much build as elapse.<\/p>\n
Time takes its toll, and Calvin eventually has to make a decision. But the character who interested me most was Bonnie, whose reality is only glimpsed. The play tacitly uses her husband\u2019s threat of suicide as a trump card. Zoophilia isn\u2019t merely a fetish for Calvin but a nonnegotiable part of his identity. <\/p>\n
This questionable assumption can be psychologically scrutinized not only from Calvin\u2019s point of view but also from his wife\u2019s. The play wants to have an intelligent debate, but it doesn\u2019t want to interrogate certain political positions too skeptically.<\/p>\n
At one point, Bonnie objects when Calvin compares his situation to that of homosexuality, but the conversation ends there. The reality is that the right wing has been making a similar claim, arguing that same-sex marriage opens the door to bestiality, polygamy and incest. \u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d inadvertently lends legitimacy to this line of reasoning.<\/p>\n
![\"Griffin](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/f4ba891\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2100x1398+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F65%2Fbe%2Fe4e0d8894338828df17894ffbf95%2Ffor-want-of-a-horse-7339.jpg)
<\/picture>\nGriffin Kelly in \u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d at the Echo Theater Company.<\/p>\n
(Cooper Bates)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Not that extremist positions should be off limits, but they ought to be more rigorously addressed. Similarly, Bonnie\u2019s concern about the issue of consent \u2014 how can a horse say yes to intercourse with a human \u2014 is introduced only to be dismissed in a shrug of mild-mannered bothsidesism.<\/p>\n
While watching \u201cFor Want of a Horse,\u201d I recalled a program on PBS called \u201cMy Wild Affair\u201d that wasn\u2019t about zoophilia but about the problematic nature of human bonds with untamed animals. Relationships with a seal, an elephant and a rhino, for example \u2014 obsessive, protective, loving friendships \u2014 all seemed to end if not in outright tragedy, then in shattering heartbreak.<\/p>\n
Q-Tip is rightfully given the play\u2019s last word, and Kelly, an actor (HBO\u2019s \u201cThe Book of Queer\u201d), writer and comedian, is the production\u2019s driving force. We can never know what\u2019s inside this mare\u2019s mind because Q-Tip\u2019s brain has evolved so differently from our own. Kelly plays the anthropomorphic game while retaining some of the inscrutability of a four-legged creature.<\/p>\n
It is through language that we, as humans, traverse the chasm separating us from one another. That\u2019s not possible with animals, even with our closest domestic companions. (Try explaining a necessary medical procedure to a cat.)<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Want of a Horse\u201d sets out to speak about the unspeakable, but its construction may be too tame for such a wild subject.<\/p>\n
‘For Want of a Horse’ <\/p>\n
Where:<\/b> Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A.<\/p>\n
When:<\/b> 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays; 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 25<\/p>\n
Tickets:<\/b> $15-$42.75<\/p>\n
Running time:<\/b> 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission)<\/p>\n