In Corrib Theatre’s “Trade,” a Sex Worker and a Client Engage in the Most Intimate Action of All: Talk

In a motel room somewhere in Dublin, an 18-year-old rent boy (Orlando Reyes Cabrera) meets with his middle-aged punter (Damon Kupper). This isn’t their first dalliance, but this time the john has shown up with bruises on his face and blood on his shirt. Perhaps strangest of all, he doesn’t want to get right down to business—he just wants to talk.

So begins Mark O’Halloran’s Trade, produced by Corrib Theatre and performed at 21ten Theatre. It’s a small story, to be sure, but in that smallness, we find awkwardness, heartbreak and, above all, an unspeakable yearning neither party can bring themselves to define.

The order of the day is intimacy, both in terms of staging and the story itself. For its one-hour runtime, Trade takes place entirely within the confines of the motel, as the two men share cheap beer and trade personal stories. It plays out as a date, but the underlying pretext of what brought them together is unavoidable; despite what one party may want, the transactional nature of their relationship defines how they interact with one another.

Trade is a story that lives and dies by the strength of its script and the quality of its actors, and luckily both hit their marks and deliver with aplomb. Kupper has the heavier lifting to do as the client; his awkwardness grows to outright desperation by the time the lights go down, but his struggles are what keeps the momentum of the story going and makes sure the emotional stakes are real and felt. Reyes Cabrera is the more restrained of the two, but the way he subtly works to keep control of the situation is unmistakable and provides a fantastic counterpoint to his counterpart.

In their notes for the play, director Tamara Carroll asks the audience to consider why the show is called Trade. The story is ultimately about the limitations of its characters’ connection: The prostitute and his client are in a purely transactional relationship, and although one is clearly seeking more intimacy, more emotional support, the two can never truly relate as equals because of the power imbalance inherent in what they do.

Trade is a story about the need for human connection, about men incapable of putting their desire for understanding and genuine emotional intimacy into words, and how those limitations are stifling and, in the worst instances, destructive. It’s an anguished wail of loneliness disguised as an uncomfortable conversation, and one of the more impactful theatergoing experiences you’ll find in such a surprisingly small space.

SEE IT: Trade plays at 21ten Theatre, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 503-389-0579, corribtheatre.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, through March 12. $15-$35.