BY ELLIOT JOSEPH

Sex, education and video projection always make a nice to start to the Fringe Festival.

The Tutor, currently playing at The Living Theater on Clinton Street, provides all of this with some great performances.  Shout out to Olivia Gilliatt who does a great job of carrying the piece and acoustics in a very deep space, whilst keeping us in touch with some very intimate moments.

The set is very scarce with a few white chairs and a desk.  The back wall is white and becomes an intricate part of the play as a video diary of our main character, Meredith (Olivia Gilliatt), who has decided to disregard her Ivy League Brown education to work as a home tutor with a dirty little secret of selling soiled underwear and sweaty bras to pervy men.  She definitely gets a kick out of it even though she plays it down as a business, whilst her lawyer fiancé, Josh (Valence Thomas), is kept in the dark until a power shift comes later on.

However, before this shift we poodle along through Meredith’s life as she is thrown into a love triangle with her pupil (Ian Way) who becomes besotted in finding his first love.  He is, after all, the thirst best looking kid in his school and confused as to why he can’t find a girlfriend.  If only he knew his father, JJ (Bradford Cover), is buying his son’s tutor’s undies, not that he would care.  Meredith is also contending with the pupil’s mother (Valerie Lonigro) and her desperate housewife longings for romance.

The play is filled with great one-liners, but the real story is that of miscommunication and an ongoing pursuit of selfish happiness, which you sometimes can’t get from relationships.  Kate Mulley has created a play with a lot to say all the while informing us that maybe it’s not such a good idea to pay for sex.

Directed by Ben Gougeon and Doug Spagnola.

The Tutor plays at The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, through August 20, 2011. Remaining performances:  Saturday, August 20th at 4:45PM.

ELLIOT’S GRADE: B+

What BVEW Members Might Like: Great writing and punch lines. Good performances and a fluid play that moves well.

Bottom Line: This is a great take on a subject that I haven’t really seen a play about and moves into great subplots of love and miscommunication.