No props. No set. No costumes changes. Only one director and four actors.

Dreamwell Theater will perform Cock this weekend at Public Space One, 120 N. Dubuque St. In this play, a man struggles with his sexuality after breaking up with his long-term boyfriend and meeting the girl of his dreams. Through the play, he tries to weigh whom he wants to be with while continuing the love triangle.

“It’s been wonderful working with a small cast,” director Matthew Brewbaker said. “It’s a lot more collaborative, and we’ve been able to get comfortable with each other.”

Cock is much more minimalistic than most productions. Playwright Mike Bartlett wrote to focus more on the actors and less on things.

“The thing that’s been most challenging and, really, most interesting is the fact that we’re staging it with no set and no props and pantomime,” said Jessica Wilson, who plays W. “In the rehearsal process, we have to find ways to move with and relate to each other that don’t involve that level of strict realism. And that’s hard, but it also gives you a freedom to discover new ways of relating to each other.”

To encourage audience to get close to the actors and scenes, chairs and pillows have been set up all along the stage. They want to show the play through different angles, Brewbaker said. This way the audience can have better sight lines.

Brewbaker will take the place an ill actor on stage for the show’s run. The show had been cast and was ready to begin rehearsals before the switch occurred.

“I think very, very quickly all of us understood and appreciated that we were in capable hands and, you know, all of us shared a desire to make a show as good as we could make it,” Wilson said.

The people in this play all have distinct characteristics, making it easy to follow along. They all have outlandish personalities to contribute to the story.

“I am actually very similar to my character. He kind of goes through a whole range of emotions with this show,” said Bryant Duffy, who plays M. “He can lose his temper at the drop of a hat, but he’s also very vulnerable. He’s in a relationship with someone he loves dearly, and he knows at anyone moment he could lose the person that he loves, and he’ll do anything to hold on the person he wants to be with.

“But I don’t think I’m as mean as this character. He can be pretty spiteful.”

John, the man in love with two people, is the only character given a name in the show. The others are referred to as W, M, and F.

“Both M and W in this play put up with an amazing amount of crap from John,” Wilson said. “I would hope that I would not tolerate all the nonsense he puts both people through.”

Additionally, this play follows the past stories of John and M and John and W in the first act. However, in the second act, they all meet for dinner, where the audience is introduced to M’s father as well.

“Don’t let the title of this show bear you away. It’s sexy, there are sexy scenes in it, there are scenes when people are at their absolute worst crumbling on the floor,” Duffy said. “It is truly a fun show to see and really gets you to think what sexuality is about and how we tend to take people’s sexuality in a little bottle, and it’s so much more that what it needs to be.”

THEATER
Cock
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Where: Public Space One, 120 N. Dubuque
Cost: $10-$13