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By these measures, Bradshaw's latest, Fulfillment, now at the Flea Theater, marks a reining in of some of these in-your-face extravaganzas. To be sure, Fulfillment still give us plenty of nudity, sex, and violence. But this time around, these elements are in service to a compelling cautionary tale about an African American man who implodes when he attempts to fit into a certain upscale, decidedly arrogant and privileged lifestyle of expensive condos, hot babes, booze, and cocaine. Michael (Gbenga Akinnagbe) is a senior associate at a major New York City law firm, where he has been putting in 80-hour workweeks on his climb up the ladder of success. He is involved sexually and romantically with another of the firm's attorneys, Sarah (Susannah Flood), and has just purchased a $1.5 million one-bedroom Soho condo. All seems to be going well until Sarah suggests to him that both he (the firm's only African American attorney) and she (its only woman) are being passed over for partnerships due to the biases of the senior partners. Once that idea takes hold, it affects every aspect of his life at work. Meanwhile, there are problems at his new home in the form of an upstairs neighbor-from-hell (Jeff Biehl). How Michael handles (or mishandles) things becomes the core of the play. Bradshaw is not a careful constructor of plays, and he tends to incorporate too many tangential plot elements, but with Fulfillment he is on to something significant by presenting us with both a serious theme and complicated characters whose ids and superegos are in constant battle. Sarah is not presented as a manipulative "Iago" type when she plants the idea that racism might be holding Michael back at work, and she is there to support him in his struggle with alcoholism and a short temper. Yet she has no compunctions about hooking up with his best friend (Christian Conn), who is seeking refuge from his own troubled marriage. Similarly, while the upstairs neighbor (Jeff Biehl) with whom Michael is locked in outrageous combat is white, Bradshaw allows us to draw our own conclusions about any racial motivation that might be a contributing factor. The violence, when it occurs, is both inevitable and important to the plot. Arguably, however, the blatant sexual scenes suggest that Bradshaw has become too enmeshed in his own image as a provocateur; here it adds nothing but provocation. Still, Fulfillment has a lot going for it, including its excellent ensemble of actors under Ethan McSweeny's direction. Rounding out the cast and equally strong are Peter McCabe as Michael's boss, who indicates that Michael is, indeed, on the path to a partnership once he gets his drinking under control; Otoja Abit as a major athlete the firm is trying to bring in as a client; and, in several small roles in which she excels, Denny Dillon. The perfect industrial-chic set design is by Brian Sidney Bembridge, and the "sex choreographer," who manages to keep things just on this side of porn, is Yehuda Duenyas.
Fulfillment
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