Central Park bathrooms used as theater

Like Sen. Larry Craig, the Irish Arts Center knows where to find good drama: in a public restroom.

"Ladies & Gents," a noir thriller produced by the Center, is now making its bathroom bow at the Bethesda Fountain Toilets in Central Park.

Upon arrival, the audience is split — half go to the men's loo, half to the women's. Two interconnecting twenty-minute pieces play out simultaneously, with a five-minute intermission, and it doesn't matter the order in which they are seen. Audience members switch bathrooms during intermission.

Spectators are guided to a place to stand along the stalls once in the lavatory and instructed not to stray from their spot. "Any movement outside this area is at your own peril," a spookily authoritative news vendor (Sean Gormley) says.

Based on a true late-1950s tabloid scandal in Dublin, the story is right out of today's headlines. It's the timeless tale of a politician and his prostitute — except this production could be subtitled "Spitzer's Revenge."

In the women's room, we meet Emily (a seductive Laoisa Sexton) preparing for a furtive assignation with a well-known client. She's involved in a clandestine scheme of her own. She's engaged the services of young Billy (a tentative Paul Nugent) to hide in a bathroom stall and snap a picture of said personage, caught in the act. The esteemed Mr. X and Billy, however, are not quite what they seem.

David McDonald is excellent in the role of Mr. X. He projects an air of unsettling calm, perfect for a noir. McDonald and Nugent are the only actors in the production to cross the bathroom breach; they appear in both the women's and the men's halves of the show.

The men's room is where Emily's husband and pimp, Watson (a suave John O'Callaghan) waits to be paid by Mr. X. More money is required to compensate for the unusual location. A stranger (John Keating), arrives to redirect the transaction, and O'Callaghan deftly shows his character's progression from smug to stunned.

Keating, as the stranger, brings a welcome comic touch to the proceedings, though there are more than a few lines that are unintentionally humorous considering recent events involving New York's former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a prostitution ring. Emily's remark that "most men are led by what's in their pants," got a knowing chuckle.

Smartly written and directed with precision timing by Dublin playwright Paul Walker, the play won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award in 2003. Lighting design, by Sinead McKenna, is appropriately atmospheric — though she can't take credit for the authentic odors.

At one point, Watson cautions Mr. X about the danger of the venture's public nature, "especially in the current climate. That politician did none of us any favors." He certainly didn't, but the Irish Arts Center has, in bringing "Ladies & Gents" to New York's loveliest latrine.