In its production of The Sex Habits of American Women, Signature proves that women’s sexual desires and exploits, hidden and otherwise, were just a whole lot more complicated and interesting in the prudish 1950s than they are today.

Well, not really.

But the story of a female sexuality-fixated psychotherapist and the women around him to whom he’s oblivious does prove to be a lot more gripping then the tale of a struggling forty-something single mom in in 2004. In an interesting feat of staging, Signature gives us both, using live actors to tell us the tale of Dr. Tittels and his women, and multiple television screens to bring us the story of Joy, the single mom, in documentary form, shown only in snippets interspersed between what’s happening onstage.

Dr. Tittels (Ralph Cosham) is a scientist and author clinging desperately to the theory that while women want and deserve a fulfilling sex life, they are ultimately driven by a desire for love. He struggles with writers’ block, fear of controversy and an unrelenting ego as he tries to bring his theories to the page, neglecting his supportive but ultimately miserable wife (Helen Hedman, pictured) and his depressed, stubborn, and serially single daughter (Teresa Castracane) in the process. His wife Agnes finds solace in the arms of a younger man, namely her husband’s protégé (Will Gartshore), and his daughter Daisy turns to…well, you’ll have to see the play to find out that one.