Sleeping Around

A raw take on just how complicated and messy life is. This show holds no punches on how relationships change in a moment and the desperate search for a sense of belonging and the heartbreaking perusal until you find it. (If you ever do) ... full review

Masterful storytelling, skillful acting, all set around the ways we crash into one another emotionally - genitals first. Sleeping Around is a slice of modern life that showcases the stories that 10 characters tell themselves and others. I say "stories" because they're not lies, neither are they truths. They're the things we tell ourselves that allow us to sleep at night feeling that we are "good people". That we have been honest, that we have been patient, that we have been forgiving, that we have been loving. And perhaps we have. Or not. It's impossible to watch this show without seeing something, or more likely someone, we recognize. This is some of the best emotional work I've seen done onstage in a long time. In the space of 10 min... full review

What a wonderful brilliance, the question that every single one of us has always pondered, but never known: How far back do the tendrils of our romantic connections really go? The perceptiveness of this show takes on a beautifully anchored form, almost a type of romantic neurology: a cyclical progression of axons and dendrites, each scene pulsing its own electric charge right into the synaptic cleft, and then....ZAP, the moment of truth. Does love succeed or fail in this moment? Maybe success and failure are the wrong words. I think what this show communicates so poignantly is that love always and forever includes both of those things, but what is left to adjudicate those successes and failures is simply human choice. These are the choices ... full review

Hollywood Fringe mainstay Theatre Unleashed returns with the World Premiere of Sleeping Around written by Cesar Abella. Abella and Theatre Unleashed have stunned at the Fringe twice before in 2012 and 2014's productions of 25 Plays per Hour, featuring Abella's knockout monologue "White Satin. Clean Lines." This new full-length work centers on a chain of sexual encounters. Each new encounter features one of the characters from the previous scene – Angela sleeps with Donnie; Donnie sleeps with Elizabeth, Elizabeth sleeps with Ryan - until the entire cast of 9 has each been featured in two scenes. The challenge with a show like this is finding ways to keep the pairings fresh, varied, and believable. After all, each character must be in a... full review

One of my favorite elements in story telling in when the production manages to lead you to a place that you never saw coming and yet made sense the entire time; and Sleeping Around accomplished this excellently. From the clever layout of the writing, to the detailed and truthful acting, I found the production to be captivating and a must-see. My only concern is that I didn’t see it twice. I can't wait to see what Theatre Unleashed has next in store.... full review

First off, what a fun show. What a fun night. TU never disappoints. But, I feel like they're sitting on a gold mine with this play that they've barely dug beneath the surface on. This script is dying to say something about our society, the cast is beyond capable of getting it there, but I wanted to really feel something with these characters. The pain and scars that come from these situations in the play seemed a bit breezed over to get to the next moment or laugh. But, man, do those laughs keep coming. I really enjoyed Sleeping Around, but it left me wanting more genuine moments to make it something truly unforgettable.... full review

Pretty good show with some nice performances from Fringe veterans. Highlight performance was Eric Cire, and the work between him and his scene partner Gregory Crafts elegantly navigated the line between in your face and underplayed. The play itself was expertly penned in cyclical episodic structure, but it did feel that most of the optimum points of drama happened in the early scenes. This did not prove to be too large an issue with it being a tight one hour with short vignettes. Overall, definitely a show worth seeing.... full review