When people attend a typical D.C. theater, they see suits and jewelry, gray beards and glasses, but with shows like Woolly Mammoth Theater's "Measure for Pleasure," it's the youth in the audience - the Vans and the soul-patches - that can make all the difference.
The play is a restoration comedy that features line after line of lewd humor played out by characters such as the transvestite Molly Tawdry and the insatiable Dick Dashwood. Innuendo is at a maximum, and for nearly three hours, the audience is in stitches.
Sir Peter Lustforth is a craggy old man who longs to make the virgin Hermione Goode his bride. Unfortunately, the womanizer Dashwood also has his eye on Hermione, while Dame Stickle, Hermione's Puritan aunt, keeps her close under her wing. Meanwhile, a valet falls in love with a transvestite prostitute who, in turn, is in love with Dashwood's alter ego, Don Fidelio. Full of deceit and every trick Shakespeare ever concocted, the play turns wildly toward a classic conclusion.
Most critics have echoed one similar point about "Measure for Pleasure" - sex is laughable for only so long. However, the critics, like most average theatergoers, are middle-aged meaning that sexual humor only works on them for so long.
Shamus Durac loved the sexual innuendo, the sophomore in the School of International Service said.
"I can listen to that kind of humor for hours," he said.
Durac saw the show during previews, when Woolly Mammoth opened for two "pay-what-you-can" performances. Pay-what-you-can performances are one way that professional theaters reach out to less-established attendees like college students by offering tickets to theatergoers at whatever price they can afford.
Students like Durac would benefit from more inexpensive options like pay-what-you-can performances. Raunchy comedies like "Measure for Pleasure" would benefit also.
"Measure for Pleasure" blends the old with the new, the powdered wigs with the penises and the "Egads!" with more modern cusses. College students are less likely to find the humor off-putting: While a little old lady may be taken aback, an unshaven Ramen-eater is doubled over.
"It was crude, but it was hilarious," said Molly Sauer, a junior in the School of Communication who also attended a pay-what-you-can performance. "It's the kind of humor kids our age are used to."
The show is half classic restoration style - even using verse at times - and half modern style - tackling issues like sexually transmitted infections and same-sex relationships. Even the much-heralded costumes by designer Helen Huang combine wigs and corsets with hooker heels and hot pink. The tongue-in-cheek attitude of the play is more appealing to college theatergoers.
"It's more amusing to us as a younger audience who can appreciate something that makes fun of the traditional plays," Sauer said.
All in all, audiences should abandon what they know about professional theater, what it's about and whom it appeals to. "Measure for Pleasure" is not for the same old theatergoer, but for students with a fresh sense of humor on sex.
"Measure for Pleasure" will run through June 29 at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. For ticketing information, visit www.woollymammoth.net.
