How to Be a Virgin (In 12 Morally Ambiguous Steps)

Reviewed by Maureen Lee Lenker
Asylum @Studio C
Through June 25^th

When virgins outside their teenage years are represented in theatre, film or television, the  portrayals tend to fall strictly along gender lines. Either the character is portrayed as a naïve man-child , as in The 40 Year Old Virgin, or — if it’s a woman — a la April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy, living according to her religious code.

Nor is there is not a lot of grey area when it comes to depicting the three percent of the population who are still holding onto their virginity at the age of 30. How to Be a Virgin (In 12 Morally Ambiguous Steps) comes as a welcome breath of fresh air, presenting a dynamic and complex tale of the steps to and emotions behind virginity well into adulthood.

The play tells of a thirty-year old Christian feminist, Virgin (Katelyn Schiller), her numerous suitors (all portrayed with varying degrees of hilarity and hang-dog charm by Josh Bross), and the story of how she held on to her V-card into her third decade of existence. It begins with the three conditions required to stay a virgin — an initial grounding in religious belief, a failure to consummate your first love, and an abiding commitment to feminism.

Though our protagonist does begin her virginity pledge for religious reasons, the situation quickly becomes more complicated. Playwright Carla Neuss, now 29, writes from personal experience, and this translates into a vital, wry and urgent take on something that is often mocked or only discussed in hushed tones.

Neuss brings virginity out into the open as its own brand of sexual identity, but also pushes us to see beyond these labels — a point she further hammers home with her irony-laced emotional ending that asks us to consider what role choice plays in how we construct the person we present to the world.

Like most Fringe plays, the production is a bit rough around the edges. Bross makes the majority of his costume changes and character transitions onstage, and the use of slides occasionally brings the action to a halt, as Schiller stops to change the machine and make her presentation. These distractions could easily be eliminated in a more fully-fledged production.

Bross and Schiller bring Neuss’s script to life with an abundance of humor and talent. In his depictions Bross leapfrogs from a sweet high-school boyfriend to a nerdy, college scientist to a coke-snorting Spainard, believably morphing with each costume change. Schiller anchors the show with her sharp wit and depths of emotion, especially evident in those honest moments where, in asking us to understand her choices, she seeks to understand herself.

How to Be a Virgin is buoyed by its tongue-in-cheek humor, as the protagonist willingly lampoons herself and the situations she finds herself in. The play’s winning humor is inviting, but it is its touching examination of virginity (a badge some wear with pride, others with shame) that packs the real punch as it asks us to examine our preconceived notions of sex, worth and identity.

Asylum @ Studio C, 6448 Santa Monica Blvd. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3447. Running time: 1 hour