In Mart Crowley's For Reasons That Remain Unclear, Patrick, the gay playwright (Andy Buzan), and Conrad, the clergyman (Joe Ivy), meet randomly on the streets of Paris and come back to Patrick's hotel room for some coffee and liqueur. The conversation that unfolds between them appears aimless, almost pointless. Crowley's dialogue has the rise and fall of natural conversation. Discussions of the church, of homosexuality, of show business formulate, intensify and then dissipate into thoughts about the weather or the quality of the wine. This goes on for an impressive period of time--probably most of the play, in fact. There is something fascinating about watching real life unfold on stage, unhindered by the charged language of plot development. In one sequence, Buzan simply folds clothes he has purchased and puts them in his suitcase--the effect is mesmerizing.

Crowley does have an agenda, which is finally revealed with an explosion of preposterous, almost soap-operatic coincidences, violent screaming sessions, and grappling matches. Pedophilia is always a hot topic, but stopped being original years ago. Here, its inclusion is somehow the center of the play and also the play's least interesting part. It is the build up to it that intrigues. Perhaps it is a sick sign of the times that the most surprising and innovative thing about this play focused on pedophilia is not the pedophilia itself, but its packaging.