Edgy New Play at Soho Playhouse: “(un)conditional”

“Nobody’s really on a hero’s journey in the show. Everybody’s on a very human journey, which I think will ultimately be an emotionally cathartic experience for the audience,” says playwright and 2024 Lighthouse Series winner Ali Keller.

In the complex and provocative play (un)conditional involves two couples—Kyle and Valerie, who have a 7-year-old daughter, Mia; and Hank and Lenox. Both couples need help.

Their boundaries of compromise and communication are at their breaking point, and a child is caught in the crossfire.

When Kyle and Valerie need some alone time to begin fixing what’s broken, Lenox, who is Kyle’s colleague from work, offers to care for Mia. But is Lenox really being a good friend or knowingly putting a child in harm’s way to test her own husband’s stalwartness?

Says Keller, “(un)conditional is a play about two couples navigating sexual fantasies and boundaries in their marriages. It explores what roles compromise, self-sacrifice, and unconditional love have in relationships that are supposed to last forever. [It] asks how the adult relationships we grow up around as kids shape how we behave in our own relationships when we grow up.

Straus Media caught up with the New York-based Keller and the play’s director, Ivey Lowe, who is an alum of the Drama League, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab, to discuss negotiating relationships, telling stories with sensitive subject matter, and how children observe more than adults think.

What drew you to write this?

Ali: The inspiration came from listening to music: “What a Funny Girl You Used To Be” by Frank Sinatra.

[It] made me think about what would happen if I fell in love with somebody dangerous, and the play grew out from there.

There’s so much dialogue right now around compromise, sacrifice, self-sacrifice, enabling, and boundaries in relationships. The more I zeroed in on that, the more excited I got about the writing.

What role does Mia play beyond being a pawn for the adults?

Ali: Mia has a full emotional arc, her own plot. There are definitely different things she’s learning about relationships and about adult dynamics, because whether we like it or not, who we are as adults and what we go into relationships subconsciously believing, are things we learned as kids.

[Mia is] played by an adult because I didn’t want to force any topics that are too mature onto a child actor.

I think art should explore all these great, complicated, taboo topics, but in the safest way possible.

Ivey: By putting an adult in the role, it allows the audience to go: “Oh, okay, I know this person is safe and consenting, so now I can take in the story and engage.” It takes that distraction out of the room.

How do you plan to handle the explicit sexual content and discussions?

Ivey: That starts with building the right team. Theater is collaborative. Every member of the team understands the provocative and intimate nature of the story and our desire to tell that from a responsible, care-centered approach.

We brought in an intimacy coordinator for the actors to have a support system, someone that they can turn to and discuss any discomfort with.

Actors are putting their bodies on the line to tell a story. Having an intimacy coordinator really helps us to empower everybody to do brave, thoughtful work.

Let’s talk about the performances. How do you keep the audience on the characters’ sides?

Ivey: It’s our job to truthfully portray [the characters’] flaws and their conflicts, not solve them. To be honest about how we all make mistakes and share that with the audience so that they can decide for themselves whose side they’re on.

You collaborated with RAINN [Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a nonprofit founded in 1994 that runs the National Sexual Assault Hotline and advocates for survivors and prevention]. How did it influence the production?

Ali: I’m very proud to be working with RAINN to make sure we’re handling sensitive sexual themes and issues with care, humor, and respect for the people creating it and the audiences who see it. It’s a hard topic, and we’re handling it with as much care as we can.

Ivey: It was just a truly invaluable resource to deepen the work. Working with RAINN gave us more education to make sure we’re portraying these experiences and these characters truthfully.

How do you want audiences to process the ending, given what they find out about the couples, especially since a child is involved?

Ali: My biggest hope for this show is when the lights go on and [the audience] is feeling however they’re feeling, they want to turn to the person next to them and talk about it, and what it brought up about the show and about their own relationships and also think about what they subconsciously take into relationships and what they can work on.

Ivey: I hope the audience will feel moved. I hope it provokes a strong enough feeling that they want to keep talking about it. This play offers big, huge, beautiful questions around intimacy and love and sacrifice, and then it leaves those questions for the audience to answer for themselves.

The play (un)conditional contains sensitive sexual content–16+ admitted. SoHo Playhouse is located at 15 Vandam Street. The show runs from Sept. 19–Oct. 26. For ticket info, visit https://www.sohoplayhouse.com.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel The Last Single Woman in New York City.