First and foremost, of course, is the title. The 1996 work by British playwright Mark Ravenhill has been capturing attention worldwide with those three little words since its debut in London's West End. "Shopping and Fucking" is one in-your-face drama containing shockingly little of the former titular activity while presenting several slightly twisted takes on the latter.
It's not so much shopping that we get as a truckload of other decadent verbs of our time; there's drug dealing, drug rehabbing, cheeseburger slinging, TV dinner eating, phone sex having, prostitution paying and cranium drilling implied or shown during the production. The point here? If you've got scruples, leave them at home.
"Shopping and Fucking" kicks off in the London home of threesome Lulu, Mark and Robbie. Mark is a druggie - sorry, "substance abuser" - who in this production resembles Scottish junkie Mark Renton of "Trainspotting" in his short, short hair and scruffy look. Upon breaking up the trio, Mark is left to feed his addictive, self-destructive personality with the likes of the oft-coquettish and far too young male prostitute Gary.
Lulu and Mark, meanwhile, earn problems of their own when they become economically indebted to Brian. Certain underground methods of making money in tough-times Britain become their obsession as they chase the almighty pound.
For the Vortex's production of "Shopping and Fucking," director David Richard Jones has assembled an excellent cast. Local theater-goers know that it's always a pleasure to see Chad Brummet again - even if they just caught him in the theatre's last production, "Wit" - and in this production, he's up to spec. Scene stealing is done with great Çlan by Scott Sharot as the explosive m.f. Brian, while Ricola Wille makes a wonderful Gary.
The duo that sticks "Shopping and Fucking" together makes for the toughest roles, but the Vortex's Alli Bivins and Luke Higgins carry these emotionally crushed characters well. Bivins in particular faces a pair of massive challenges - sporting a T-shirt declaring her in two-foot tall letters to be SEXY and a monologue she delivers without it.
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Despite the fact that "Shopping and Fucking" is a necessity for any student of modern theater, the Vortex should garner your plunked-down cash for another excellent program to chase their recent successes "Reservoir Dogs" and the aforementioned "Wit."
Sure, that F-word in the title is bound to attract interest and controversy while providing much pre-show discussion, but a funny thing may happen to you on your way to the theater. Topless scenes and ass-licking - yep, it's in there - aside, what should last the longest in your mind is Ravenhill's question, "Are there any feelings left?"
