The more things change...

If we’d had a general election right after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani would have won it in five-and-a-half landslides. Sympathy for the former New York mayor was off the charts as he grappled with the devastation, and his quip about the sudden availability of tickets for The Producers didn’t hurt his PR. That brilliant observation was about as jet-black as comedy gets (which is why I loved it); that it came from the city’s top man rounded out the human face America craved amid one of the most heinous acts in the history of civilization.

The MOXIE Theatre folks are traveling up the same alley with their The Sugar Syndrome. Two of the play’s themes—bulimia and teen sex—don’t come close to registering against 9/11’s ghastly impact. But amid its invisible horrors, pedophilia certainly does. British playwright Lucy Prebble lightens the atmosphere in this treatment about people in need and their means of reaching out. Like Rudy’s little wisecrack, her detachment invites compassion for the principals; add Rachael VanWormer’s typically spirited acting and a remarkable performance by Terri Park, and MOXIE’s serious reputation for topical, get-your-hands-dirty fare remains intact.

“The sugar syndrome” refers to wartime eating habits, whereby people keep their heads on straight through sweets-induced fixes rather than balanced diets. The vulgar, precocious, unbuckled Dani (VanWormer) is the condition’s modern standard-bearer amid her penchants for cake and wine—at 17, she’s already in college, thinks Homer’s The Iliad is a bag of shit, has an emotionally crippled mother and doesn’t remember a time when the Internet wasn’t around. A chat room spawns her friendship with Tim (Sean Cox), a 38-year-old ex-con and child abuser who seeks her help in guarding his closely held secrets.

The final moments, which fuel Dani’s horror, are a metaphor for the desperation that encircles her, including that of Lewis (Jesse Allen Moore), a fellow teen who’d give his firstborn for a night in Dani’s pants, and of Jan (Park), Dani’s mum, who’s desperate to re-enter the workforce as she goes life alone.

What elevates this play beyond the macabre is Prebble’s knack for evoking our opinions without interjecting her own. She’ll draw the exposition and then gently step away, leaving the staff to develop it—and my, how director Jennifer Eve Thorn responds. Lewis’ gangliness; Dani’s big mouth; Tim’s quiet disdain; Jan’s despair: Thorn hasn’t missed a pickle as she discovers new bits of business to shape the characters per Prebble’s quiet, humane suggestions. That’s especially true for Jan, whose careworn face has morphed into a skeletal relic. Park absolutely shines in this role—her Jan is the quintessence of the jilted underachiever who, but for her overwhelming fatigue, may even become a danger to herself.

MOXIE is the third company in the U.S. to stage this play, Prebble’s first—remarkably, she wrote it four years ago at only 22 years old. Those two elements lend an indefinable freshness to this piece, which good-naturedly explores the grisly toll modern life exacts. There’s lots of hope underneath the despair here, just as on the day a beleaguered city official chose some pretty sick humor to diffuse his own.    
 
This review is based on the opening-night production of Feb. 21. The Sugar Syndrome runs through March 8 at Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd. in University Heights. $10-$35. 858-598-7620, www.moxietheatre.com.

Write to marty@edarts.info and editor@sdcitybeat.com.