Four black men discuss their various problems with women in a luxury warehouse apartment, revealing in the process strains on their romantic and work relationships. Chris, a corporate lawyer, is in low spirits because he has just been dumped by his fiancée after a seven-and-a-half-year relationship. Robin and Greg sympathetically attempt to set him up on a date with a woman who is on her way to Korea to teach English. There is trite comedy as they rehearse Chris in the ritual of the pick-up. But the true subject unravels only because of Wendle’s dilemma – he is facing dismissal from his high-profile job because of a charge of rape brought against him by a woman after a fumbled consensual encounter. This quickly plunges the play into a discussion about sexual and legal politics, with a further twist when Robin suddenly reveals that he was a victim himself of sexual assault as a boy. This is meant to show the serious difference between a false and real assault, but it, like most of the dialogue, is trite.

Playwright Moodie follows formulaic conventions: embarrassing gaffes, wisecracks to cover same, exaggerated comic set pieces, hints of sexual ambiguity, the big secret, and the feel-good ending. Much of the material lacks plausibility and depth. One resounding reason is that the characters are rooted not so much in the foibles and vagaries of contemporary life as in theatrical formulae. They wring laughter out of their own anxieties before squeezing pathos in order to underline the fact that even men with a penchant for hockey and lap dancing can have feelings and express moral support for one another. This is light, discursive comedy that tries to be significant by grafting social issues onto itself, but instead of being nuanced, it is transparent, and rather than being profoundly disturbing or provocative, it is hackneyed.