Charles
Isherwood

July 22, 2015

A bawdy sex comedy somersaults into a dark exploration of the treatment of women in Muslim (and American) culture in “Threesome,” an enterprising if not always persuasive play by Yussef El Guindi, about a less-than-successful evening of erotic adventuring and its uncomfortable aftermath. The play, which opened on Wednesday at the 59E59 Theaters, kicking off the theater’s new season, opens with a young couple coolly puffing on e-cigarettes as they lie together in bed. Exchanging slightly self-conscious banter about their plans for the evening — a sexual tryst involving a third party, we eventually learn — they both admit to feeling slightly ill at ease. “Trust two arty types to feel this way,” laments Leila (Alia Attallah). “I bet regular people wouldn’t be this neurotic.” Leila has just written a book whose subject she remains evasive about. Her partner, Rashid (Karan Oberoi), is a photographer who hopes to land the job of creating the book cover. Before long, they have veered away from talk about the adventure ahead to engage in exchanges about gender politics and poisonous cultural attitudes toward women’s bodies.