“Inanimate”

**** Objectophilia? How many of us know what the heck this is? I would say, very few, BUT, once you watch “Inanimate” now on stage at Theater Wit ( in theater one), you will get a pretty good handle on the subject matter and its true meaning. This 90-minute play, written by Nick Robideau, takes us to a place we never expected. For the record, the definition of “objectophilia” involves romantic and sexual attraction to specific objects and is considered linked to  autism.

In this play, smoothly directed by Jeremy Wechsler, Erica Grillo ( played to perfection by JG Smith) a thirty-something, who lives with her older sister Trish (deftly handled by Jodi Gage) has a slight problem. She has affection for inanimate objects: lamps, teddy bears, can openers and her greatest love, the sign at her local Dairy Queen ( played by Aaron Latterell, who will remind you of a sort of young Elvis). Yes, she loves a sign, and finds herself drifting by the DQ almost every night to see her lover and have conversations with him. She refers to him a “D”.Latterell is terrific.

After losing her grocery store job ( she was reported as crazy talking to a can opener and rubbing it all over her body in the aisle, she meets an old school chum ,Kevin ( William Anthony Sebastian Rose II handles this part ), who is almost a manager at the DQ and offers her a job. It turns out that he has always had a crush on her and of course the entire town always figured he was “gay”, so why bother? In the story we find out that he is truly Bi-sexual ,and feels thta if Erica can live with his situation, then he can live with her loving a sign.

Meanwhile her sister, who is in politics is fighting to rebuild their town on her way to bigger things, and when she learns of her little sister’s attraction, she puts the DQ into the picture meaning it would also be torn down and rebuilt.

This is where I will leave it so I do not spoil the ending and how things change for all the parties involved. Oh, did I tell you about the “Chorus”? There are three dynamite performers who are called the Chorus, each being an inanimate object thta she loves, but also taking on some other roles to move the story along. They are Erin Long, a long-legged and very sexy can opener, Khloe Janel , a fringed lamp shade among other objects, and Dustin Valento, who is a teddy bear and does a great stint as a TV news reporter. These 3 actors truly work their roles and hit all the right spots.

The set (Joe Johnson) looks exactly like the DQ right down the street from the Paramount Theater in Aurora, and the design allows for it to be the TV screen when Erica is viewing the news. The sign post is cool and the visual of the sign is the jacket (Mara Blumenfeld, who also designed some great chorus costumes). The sound and music ( Joe Vourt) and lighting (Levi Wilkins) were both spot on and the props ( AnnaMae Durham) were perfect.

“Inanimate” will continue through May 4th with performances as follows: