The line between love and bestiality was blurred last night when the USC Department of Theatre and Dance premiered “Swimming in the Shallows”: A tale of passion and commitment revolving around a married couple, two lesbian partners and — here’s where things get fishy — a man and a mako shark.
The performance, which runs until March 1 at the Center for Performance Experiment in Hamilton College, was the company’s most bizarre and hilarious performance of the school year.
To call Adam Bock’s script offbeat is an understatement — things get downright weird. The married couple, Bob (Justin Sanders) and Barb (Leeanna Goldstein Rubin), run into trouble in paradise when Barb contemplates ending the relationship to become a Buddhist monk and give away all her worldly possessions (save for eight, a la the eightfold path to enlightenment). Partners Donna (Kate Dzvonik) and Carla Carla (Laurie Roberts) want to take things to the next level and tie the knot, but Donna’s cigarette habit complicates things. Then there’s Nick (Cory Lipman), who falls in love with a mako shark (Liam MacDougall) after a visit to the aquarium.
But there’s a surprising depth to the exploration of these odd couples. Director Scott Giguere gives his actors enough freedom to flex their quirk while simultaneously establishing enough structure that the production’s main theme (I promise, there is a point to the madness) can shine through: The fear of jumping into the deep end with a significant other. I guess in the case of Nick and his shark lover, this theme takes a more literal form.