'Boys in the Band' play cruelly

By Donna Chernin

There was a coming-out party at Baldwin-Wallace

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College the other night.

The guests were "The Boys in the Band."

Although they all claimed to be good friends, the exchange of hostility and caustic comments at one social gathering was awe-

some.

The situation becomes ironic as well when one realizes the reason for their partying is the celebration of a mutual -friend's birthday, ordinarily considered a happy

occasion.

All the guests, save one fellow who pops by uninvited, are confirmed homosexuals, and much of Mart Crowley's tragicomedy is devoted to their thrashing out the reasons why. "Neurotic compulsion not to succeed, guilt turned to hostility, overprotective mothers and aching oedipal complexes” are just a few of the mentioned causes.

Although no "cures" are effected, their symptoms make for a most diverting, entertaining evening.

Pamela Edington does a sensitive job of directing an all male, nine-member ensemble. The roster of guests includes a diversified, well cast and, more

importantly, a talented group of actors.

There is the most effeminate member of the

party, described by the one straight guest as “a butterfly in heat.” He flutters about the room with engaging flair in the person of Greg Cesear.

Another interesting character is the birthday boy himself, agilely portrayed by David Cameron Anderson as a "32-yearold, pockmarked Jew fairy." He meets his match in Roy Woods Jr. as the vindictive host of the party.

A moving performance is given by Angus Blackburn who portrays the stuffy, heterosexual college chum. His reaction to the flurry of insults and the realization that his old roommate is a homosexual is aptly compared to a highway accident. "He can't look, but he can't stand to leave either.”

The jokes and gibes end abruptly when the embittered host goads his guests into playing a cruel party game. Each participant is instructed to call on the telephone the one person they truly believe they have loved and express their undying devotion to him or to her.

The agony and humilia-

tinu that inanitahle

ARANAD

as the guests relive oldtorments makes for gripping theater. Scott Hardy and Carl King,. in particular, play, the game with high stakes.

At the party's conclu-

sion, the host is left devastated and alone in his posh New York pad, moaning to himself, “If we could just learn not to hate ourselves so very much.”