Three times the charm for solo performer Kate Robards, back for another outing at Capital Fringe, using her life as the very funny inspiration for her third solo show.
After 2014’s amusing monologue about her time as an expatriate living in China (Mandarin Orange), and her life with a trust-funded husband (Ain’t That Rich), this time, she is rolling around on a bed talking about her open marriage with the aforementioned rich-boy spouse.
If you are looking for a salacious, juicy description of how to enter into a polyamorous marriage or a blow-by-blow of her favorite evenings as a “throuple,” better Google some erotica and start reading. Robards is a masterful storyteller with razor sharp comic timing and a nearly fearless ability to take both the pain and the joy of her experiences to fashion an audience-grabbing confessional.
She does recount moments of her sex-positive relationship with her husband and his girlfriend and it is a steamy tale to be sure but that episode is just one in a series of experiences she weaves into another captivating mix of stand-up comedy and dramatic expression.
The title of the show – PolySHAMory – offers an important clue as to the nature of Robards’ experience with her husband – ex-husband – and their experiment in polyamory. The situation did not lend itself to marital bliss. However, as fuel to Robards’ creative storytelling, she mines her life from childhood onwards. Early on, Robards asks the audience if they want to hear about her childhood or failed polyamorous marriage. After several patrons express they want to hear about the latter, she responds, “Assholes.” It is amusing, not confrontational, and the monologue incorporates moments across her timeline anyway.
As her other solo shows have done, PolySHAMory paints a rich portrait of a complex life, made theatrically engaging. Her upbringing as a small town, Christian church-going girl, raised by a saucy but traditional Southern belle does not prepare Kate for her evolution into a worldly, open-minded spouse struggling to find her place on a sexually liberated frontier. She even confesses, “My mom does not endorse this show. After all, here I am in a church talking about an open marriage.”
No word whether her former husband approves or disapproves of the show, but he is central to this very personal tale. He introduced the idea of an open marriage. This opened a new door to their bicoastal relationship (she was in San Francisco finishing grad school; he was on the east coast). Robards went to a polyamory therapist (a new one on me) and tried to adopt the mantra “Love is love is love is love” while attempting to embrace their new lifestyle.
The Texas churchgoer deep inside Robards struggled with the open-minded 30-something seeking to allow a paramour (or lover who was not her husband) deep inside her. Robards described her lover as a “silver fox.” Her husband found his own paramour in a pretty 22 year old. All three co-habitated in a roomy New York apartment with mixed results. She mines the comic potential of her plight while not shying away from the emotional toll such a knotty relationship took on her.
Robards balances her impeccable timing and subtle characterizations, with the pathos of a confessional, fueled by such guides as “The Ethical Slut” – the go-to text about maneuvering as a sexually positive feminist. As the writer-performer lays bare her own soul, she offers glimpses at the equally complicated life of her childhood best friend, Jackie Shumaker. Shumaker, a fashionista and model, ostensibly living an Instagram-perfect life in New York, has her own challenges, despite outward appearances. Robards shows herself as friend and confessor, even as she navigates her own labyrinthine love life.
When the laughs die down, Robards leaves us with a brave tale, told expertly. Another brilliant evening of theatre at Capital Fringe.
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PolySHAMory . Written and performed by Kate Robards . Directed by Maureen Monterubio . Produced by Kate Robards . Reviewed by Jeff Walker.
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