What: Modern Swimwear
Where: The Tank
312 W. 36th St.
New York, NY
Who: Recommended for Ages 18 and Up
When: Through February 12, 2023
Modern Swimwear is an extremely dark play. The show is about a troubled relationship between a swimwear designer and her freeloading boyfriend who eventually ends up killing her. This is not a spoiler because sadly the play is based on the true story of Sylvie Cachey and Nicholas Brooks. The play purports to be about the last night of Sylvie's life and the price of female ambition. However, Nicholas doesn't seem to resent Sylvie because she is doing better than him.
On the contrary, Nicholas seems happy to live off of her. The playwright also imagines an odd buzzing sound in Nicholas'in head every time he and Sylvie try to engage in physical affection or he touches her. There is no evidence of anything like that in any written records of the case so implying that there was is just letting him off easy. He didn't kill her because he was having a mental breakdown, he killed her because he was homicidally enraged that he wasn't going to be able to live off her anymore, and she might report him for stealing money from her. To imply otherwise does a disservice to the actual life and sad death of the real Sylvie Cachey.
The play basically alternates between the pair fighting and trying to get it on. Either way, it's uncomfortable. In fact, there is not one minute of this play where the audience feels any level of comfort. The only redeeming factors are the performances especially that of Fig Chilcott as Sylvie and the array of swimwear on display that was inspired by Sylvie's first collection. Of course, if you want to see her swimwear, you could probably just look it up online and that would be a lot less depressing.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit thetanknyc.org/modern-swimwear.
Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.
Photo credits:
All Modern Swimwear production photos by Julieta Cervantes
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