In psychoanalytical terms, it also moves the play away from Freudian territory toward that of Carl Jung. At the risk of sounding reactionary, in a theatrical milieu where female, ethnic and gay sexualities are explored onstage with predictable regularity, it's almost rare to see a straight man sympathetically analyze the sexual complexities of another. This is not a politically correct play. When we did the Fringe production, men told me they cried at the end of the play. Maybe what I locked into was how men would like to see women sometimes.
Many men have desires outside their relationships and they're bombarded with images of sexuality.
I direct it like an individual struggle. I think women go through losing that thrill and wanting to go away as much as men do. It's a fallacy to just think women are faithful and men go astray. It doesn't take long to realize this is as much Thornton's project as it is the playwright's. She takes the lead in answering questions and ferociously defends against queries that sound like criticism.