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No Return

nytheatre.com review by Judith Jarosz
August 15, 2005

In this feisty performance piece of rapid-fire monologues, poetry, and raps, we are introduced to three lesbian women with three very distinctive connections to a common bond. Each person has her own unique story, and there are some pretty intense tales to tell.The piece opens with “Love Letter to New York City,” in which the three women reveal where they come from, what they are, and why they came to or stayed in the Big Apple.Laura Renyna is a Mormon-raised Latina dyke from Texas. Carolyn Connelly is a lanky 6’2” Irish-Italian Brooklyn-born transsexual woman. And Heather Daniels, a curvy platinum blonde with attitude to spare, is a flashy femme from West Virginia. Each performer takes turns giving us individual stories about her life.All three performers have illuminating and revealing moments. We join Connelly as a young child in Brooklyn dealing with her mother’s alcoholism, and see her fears of facing that demon within herself. At one point, while she rubs her body all over seductively, she addresses the issue of what people think she may or may not be, and what they might expect from her if they get intimate. We all face this in one way or another, but with the added “layers” of Connelly’s situation, it is especially unsettling to contemplate.Daniels gives us detailed accounts of what it’s like to work in a peep show, as a dominatrix, and as a dancer in a lesbian bar (where she is on more than one occasion treated just as rudely and objectified as in any “straight” bar). She discusses the fact that she likes to dress sexy because it’s who she is and not just to titillate others. One should never assume that it’s an invitation to touch. Okay, a therapist might have a field day with this, but I find the attitude refreshing.Renya is touching and sincere, and has some truly heart-wrenching moments. She angrily raps about Latino stereotypes in “Fuck the Taco Bell Dog,” and I love her piece titled “Intellectual Intercourse,” which very poetically states the need to make love with the mind and intellect, as well as the body.One angry monologue after another would be tedious indeed, but all three ladies manage to make their points while still injecting flashes of humor throughout. I am struck by the universality of this piece. No matter what choices you make in life, everyone worries about, longs for, and rejoices in, the same things. At the end of the evening, some points that stay with you are the idiotic prejudices that exist not only between, but within all types of groups, and the overall need to just be loved for who you are. And that is, after all, always a worthy message.