David Cale in “A History of Kisses”.Before it was Vegas, the place for passionate romantic affairs was the beach. The churning tide and soft sand under warm skies does something to the body, bringing up unknown depths of longing. In The History of Kisses, writer, director and actor David Cale summons up stories and songs inspired by such scenery.
Studio Theatre’s bare walls, a lifeguard’s chair and an easel rest on the bare sand on the stage when Cale walks in and begins with a beckoning sea shanty, telling the audience to “raise your anchor and let’s sail” to a new place. The easel shows that the first segment is called “Lisa,” and Cale becomes Lisa, a single mother telling a passionate yarn of a one-night stand. Later, in the one-man-play’s complex, interweaving structure, we learn that Lisa is the best friend of Roger, the ostensible writer of all of the stories to come.
Cale dips in and out of characters smoothly and yet always perceptibly. Accents and visual cues help differentiate each one. Halfway through, Roger tells us how he came to the sea to write all these stories: from finding a buried photograph of a couple in a “wild kiss” on the deck of a boat. Points like that come back in multiple tales, in sometimes surprising ways.
The stories are all about love, and, while sometimes bittersweet, they leave you smiling fondly and even laughing. Cale transforms into an Australian surfer, hosting a sex-tips show and spewing mountains of hilarious euphemisms. Later, he becomes Roger again and talks about spending so long in a place called “Longing” that he’s become the mayor of it. Tales of sex, lust and betrayal simmer throughout, while the sea shanties Cale has invented keep the romantic sea air wafting.
David Cale has made a name for himself as a renowned solo performer. Using several accents and tones of voice, he tells stories from the perspectives of his characters. If Cale were portraying these women and men in a regular play, it’s hard to say if he would be convincing physically. But in this setting, Cale spins his tales so well that no one needs be convinced. His storytelling ability is so immense that the bare, sandy stage felt full of the people and settings each character related. The fact that it’s one actor portraying all these lives can be forgotten and buried underneath, just like the photograph that inspired them all.
The History of Kisses runs through July 3 at Studio. Tickets are available online.
