Mary Novaria

Jason Rosario and Nikki Muller Definition of Man: A Duet in One Act embraces many of the messy and seemingly disparate fabrics essential to our beings. Creators and stars Nikki Muller and Jason Rosario, under the direction of JJ Mayes, have tackled a very tall order of issues—love, sex, relationships, families of origin, class, race, misogyny, feminism and mortality. Through words, mostly spoken and sometimes sung, a multitude of languages, and a physicality of shear gymnastic proportion, they have stitched together a beautiful love story which, in less intuitive and talented hands, could have been frenzied and even slapstick, but instead is thoughtful, logical and elegant. The play, in one act, takes us through an arc comprising the two characters’ early lives and love affair. It seems they are now the last pair on earth, which has caused considerable consternation because, besides being isolated and filthy, what now? Definition of Man is palpably intimate, from its b...

By  Mary Novaria   May 25, 2017                                        (Washington Post Illustration/iStock images) The first time I went to Paris, I was a newlywed. The last time, I was a mother. Both times, I was disabused of any notion that Paris is the most romantic city on earth. When my husband John and I went to Paris two years into our marriage, I thought it would be like a “real” honeymoon, our first having been just two gray days in Chicago. For weeks leading up to our departure, I hummed a calliope of French movie themes while slow motion pictures flickered through my mind: John and I strolling hand in hand along the Seine… gazing into each other’s eyes, whispering Je t’aime over romantic dinners in candlelit bistros… sipping champagne atop the Eiffel Tower as the sun set and the city lights twinkled below. In every scene, I wore a little bla...