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RODEO STAR by Paulino Nunes, directed by Adam Nashman, with Marie-Josée Lefebvre and Nunes. Presented by Bald Ego and Mid Atlantic Productions at St. Vladimir (620 Spadina). July 4 and 10 at 7:30 pm, July 6 at 10 pm, July 8 at 4 pm, July 9 at 3:30 pm, July 11 at 6:30 pm, July 12 at noon.

actor paulino nunes’s offhand comment in last year’s Fringe beer tent that nudity is the best way to guarantee a Fringe hit has led to his debut as a playwright.

Nunes’s Rodeo Star began with the idea of a man enjoying a lap dance in a strip joint, though eventually he decided it didn’t yield many possibilities.

Then he thought of a guy in a hotel room with the escort whose services he’d bought for the evening, and the show took off – especially after he saw the film Mulholland Drive, with its characters who both are and aren’t different people.

“I was really messed up by that movie. The people we see live through the same situations, emotional and physical realities, but the constructs keep changing,” offers Nunes, who’s given fine performances this year in Seizer and Lobby Hero.

“In the second and third scenes of my play, I switched the two characters’ roles but gave them a similarly structured past. The various episodes become one character’s way of dealing with a troubled, shattered history.

“It’s a kind of insanity, repeating the same behaviour but expecting different results.”

One of the keys to the script is generating a sensual chemistry between the characters, and with Nunes and the excellent Marie-Josée Lefebvre in the roles, the heat should be palpable.

“I want the audience to be aroused, drawn into the story and even slightly repelled, but still hoping these two will connect. There’s nothing worse than watching lovers on a stage or screen and not caring whether they get together.” JK