FOR SOME, MAYBE — FOR OTHERS, A CHORE

An exhausting exercise in enforced
fun and emotional emptiness

(Seated) Felix (Jimin Moon), Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery,
(on floor) Kobe (Calvin Seabrooks, and Tahj (Adrián Javier) are two couples

You know that one friend who exhausts everyone in the room? That annoying one in your wider friend group? Now imagine four of them. You would be unsurprised to learn that they vacation together, yet relieved you don’t get invited. Alas, sometimes you get assigned to watch, so you still get dragged into their vapid lives. If that sounds fun, then head over to see Matthew Scott Montgomery’s shallow new play, Foursome, at Atwater Village Theatre.

Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery) consoles Tahj (Adrián Javier) with Felix (Jimin Moon)

Four young queers gather on New Year’s Eve at a log cabin somewhere within driving distance of Los Angeles. Noah (Mr. Montgomery), wealthy from an unspecified office job, has invited his three closest friends for their annual holiday: Felix, Noah’s partner (Jimin Moon), who uses they/them pronouns; Tahj his ex-boyfriend (Adrián Javier); and Kobe, Tahj’s boyfriend (Calvin Seabrooks). Felix juggles side gigs while gaining financial traction as an influencer. Tahj works as a stuntman or actor — it’s unclear. Kobe comes and goes as needed by the plot. They socialize, dance, drink, and try to convince themselves that they like each other, belying their obvious antagonism. Noah proposes marriage to Felix; after being rejected and nearly fracturing the group, he pivots to Tahj’s proposal of a four-way relationship.

Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery)

Montgomery seems to believe he has created fun, charming characters living their “true selves” loudly and flamboyantly. Instead, they share the same rapid “omigod” cadence, infantilized affect, and slutty wardrobe choices. There is nothing inherently wrong with flamboyance or theatricality — but here it registers as sameness. When Terrence McNally employed a similar social circle in Love! Valour! Compassion!, he created distinct individuals, not variations on a stereotype. These four behave as though the spotlight is always on them, and the effect is grating. Watching them socialize, play “Which Sex and the City character are you?” (when is this, 2004?), or perform a choreographed pop routine becomes an endurance test. As a group, they ring false, and spending time with them is a hateful chore.

Felix (Jimin Moon) and Kobe (Calvin Seabrooks) need clarification

Speaking of McNally’s play, Montgomery uses situations and ideas found in other, better shows. Echoes of Noël Coward’s Design for Living and the screen version of Paint Your Wagon surface in the premise, but without cosmopolitan affability (or winds called Maria). There’s mention of the age and wealth disparity between Noah and Felix, but, unlike Joshua Harmon’s Skintight, none of the characters give it more than a passing thought.

Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery) reacts to a confession from Tahj (Adrián Javier)

Director Tom DeTrinis keeps the actors busy, filling the stage with clowning. Yet the script offers little genuine comic writing to support it. On opening night, while many in the house were quick to pounce on some slight bit of “funny” business, my companion turned to me soon after it began and asked if he missed something. Not a good sign. That DeTrinis didn’t coax his actors into creating distinct characters is a central shortcoming in a play so dependent on interpersonal dynamics.

Tahj (Adrián Javier) pins down his best friend Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery)

As Noah, who proudly identifies as a Disney adult, Montgomery gives himself the lion’s share of lines, the least time wearing a shirt, and ample opportunity to chew the scenery. Jimin Moon’s Felix shares little chemistry with him. As Tahj, Adrián Javier provides the only sustained glimpse of emotional honesty; his reaction to Noah’s proposal offers a fleeting suggestion of a sweetly romantic, more grounded, affecting play. Calvin Seabrooks’ Kobe is underwritten, functioning largely as a narrative convenience who exists only to get dumped before dispensing wisdom later in a sappy, actorly monologue (is it possible to feel physical revulsion to a mundane declaration of love? Just wait until you see how Seabrooks says, “Love ya!”). The cast is skilled and has a comfortable comradery with each other, but the script doesn’t allow their characters meaningful vulnerability or self-examination, outside of brief, tantalizing teases of a better play.

Tahj (Adrián Javier) shares a kiss with his partner Kobe (Calvin Seabrooks)

The characters’ behavior often defies credibility. They are ostensibly best friends, yet immediately at each other’s throats, with little variation in tone. Tahj and Kobe have been together for seven years, yet basic emotional cues go unnoticed. When the group agrees to the titular arrangement — without even naming polyamory — the jarring shift from marriage talk to group sex is abrupt and dramatically inert (and despite a content warning, no nudity). Weirdly, the sex is not only played for laughs (Noah, one of those characters that can’t shut up and enjoy a blow job, sets a 10-second timer, as if they’re playing musical chairs), but it’s mixed with violence. Some pairings throughout the show include choking each other. It’s as if they’ve never had sex, much less group sex. Or sex with people they like.

Kobe (Calvin Seabrooks, standing) reacts to confessions from Tahj (Adrián Javier)

IAMA Theatre Company and Celebration Theatre are co-presenting the show; both companies put my editor through the wringer about past insufficient pronoun fealty. Given that an actor (Jimin Moon) and character (Felix) are non-binary, Celebration Theatre’s pronoun policy was handed out at media check-in. This kind of diktat is enough to keep me away, but I gave the show the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it would shed light on the non-binary experience and convince me, where everyone else has failed, that it’s not just the new emo. Nope. The script offers no exploration of that identity beyond a surface-level marker. There was absolutely nothing that said anything other than gay male, including male patterns of aggression. Just characters using singular they (I was advised in the pronoun policy not to put quotation marks around someone’s name or pronouns, so I asked my editor to italicize them). Anyway, you could remove all the theys and nothing would be different. The language draws attention to itself without deepening character or theme, creating initial confusion and, later, a certain stiffness.

Felix (Jimin Moon) and Noah (Matthew Scott Montgomery)

Nicholas Ponting’s cabin set looked impressive and substantial, until a feeling of emptiness took over as the blocking tended to stay upstage. Nicole Bernardini’s props add texture, but are mostly too small to register clearly, killing a running gag involving the homeowner’s portraits. While the script failed to make distinct characters, Danae Iris McQueen’s costumes effectively differentiate the characters at a glance. Josh Epstein’s lighting remains mostly naturalistic, with occasional shifts into club-style effects that were unmotivated by characters’ actions. A few directional audio cues were a nice touch, but I’m puzzled why the scant sound design needed both Andrea Allmond and Jeff Gardner. Similarly, this show credits two intimacy directors: Alex J. Gould (also fights) and Giovanni Ortega (also associate director), which seems overkill for four actors.

Tahj (Adrián Javier) takes a video of his friends and partner
(Jimin Moon, Matthew Scott Montgomery and Calvin Seabrooks)

As slick as the production looks at first glance, it’s not enough to make me enjoy enforced fun with relentlessly fake, stereotyped, and self-absorbed people, or paper over the cop-out of an ending. Prior to the show, staff from IAMA and Celebration introduced Foursome as a play about people who want to be “seen.” Oh, they want to be seen, all right, but only in the sense that we turn to look.

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photos by Jill Petracek 

Foursome
IAMA Theatre in association with Celebration Theatre
Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles
ends on March 23, 2026 EXTENDED to March 28, 2026
for tickets ( $45-$65), visit IAMA

for more shows, visit Theatre in LA

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Friends (Adrián Javier, Jimin Moon, Matthew Scott Montgomery
and Calvin Seabrooks) strike a pose