The Power of Sexual Desire

Virtually all the play’s action, to one degree or another, is motivated by sexual desire experienced or acted upon by the characters. Right from the beginning, in the first scene between Dan and Alice, there is the very clear sense that while they are each intrigued with the other on other levels, they are primarily driven by a powerful physical attraction. As the play progresses, those sorts of attractions play out in each of the characters and the ways in which they interact: the connections and subsequent relationships between Dan / Anna, Anna / Larry, and Larry / Alice are all primarily defined by their physical or sexual desires for each other. Many, if not most, of the other experiences of the characters (i.e. love, anger, jealousy, urgings towards violence) are triggered, defined by, or responses to their experiences of sexual desire.

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