NOVEMBER 11, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 25

ENTERTAINMENT

Pulsing tale of gay 1950s boxers challenges macho roles

Blade to the Heat

by Oliver Mayer

New York Shakespeare Festival

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

George C Wolfe's production of Oliver Mayer's Blade to the Heat at the New York Shakespeare Festival is a punch-drunk display that mixes homoerotic imagery with theatrical pyrotechnics. Played on a huge metal set the color of dried blood, and scored to the pounding rhythm of conga drums, the tale of racism and homophobia in the late 1950s assaults the audience's senses.

In the brutal world of the boxing ring, "becoming a man" is a rite of violent passage, and playwright Mayer-who boxed in school has a sure grasp of the language of machismo. The play is based on real 1962 fight where Emile Griffith, after being called a faggot at the weigh-in by his opponent Benny Perat, literally beat Perat to death.

Mayer has invented a story that focuses on three Latino boxers, their trainers and lovers. Mantequilla Decima, a Cuban-American and middle-weight champion, after losing a fight to a young Chicano, Pedro Quinn, is provoked to question his masculinity by the taunts of a third boxer, Wilfred Vinal. Vinal is a less talented boxer than the other two men, but is more assured in his masculinity. As played by Nelson Vasquez, there is a certain pathetic desperation to his homophobic rhetoric. His bravado reaches a chilling peak when he confronts Quinn in the men's room before a fight. "I'll fuck anything," he snarls, "but ain't no boy gonna fuck me!"

Although Decima is ostensibly straight, his real sexuality is decidedly ambivalent. Paul Calderon plays him as a patrician, a gentleman fighter, both sensitive and honest.

Decima vs. Quinn: the fights are staged as erotic dances.

In his own personal desperation, he abandons his scruples and follows Vinal's reasoning that "when you are down, you go for the other boy's weakness." When he taunts Pedro in the ring, calling him the very thing he may well be himself, it precipitates his death.

If Decima's profound sexual confusion and physical beauty is the center of attention in Blade to the Heat, Pedro Quinn is the center of the plot. He is sensitively played by Kamar de los Reyes as a young man who knows he is queer and knows he has to hide it. His need and his pain are very real, and the closet he is locked in doesn't seem to have a door. He is a caged animal desperately in need of his lover's caresses, and unable to fully accept them. His lover is a black night-

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club singer, Garnet, played by Carlton Wilson as a world-wise older man, wary of Quinn's confusion. He is a proud and loving man. When he confronts Quinn, who has avoided him since they made love, his reply to Quinn's brutal statement that "Nothing happened" is "I can live with that, can you?" It cuts to the heart.

Although the plot is somewhat sketchy and the points are often obvious, the depiction of homophobia and the way it affects individuals is very real. Wolfe's dazzling staging overcomes any flaws the script may have. It is a marvel of hardhitting, fast-paced theatricality and, when appropriate, of quiet delicacy. His production team have put together a vivid spectacle. Riccardo Hernandez's set is a metal structure that

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serves as training gym, boxing ring, and through the use of carefully chosen props, as a variety of other locations. Its rotting metal looks like it is covered with dried blood. Paul Gallo's lighting uses sultry reds, smokey blues, or glaring white. The production pulses to the beat of the conga drums and a sound collage of traffic noise.

For me the most remarkable aspect of the production is its unflinching gayness. The boxers' bodies are displayed as objects of desire. There is a nude shower scene. The fights are staged as erotic dances. The love scene between Quinn and Garnet is played to get the maximum erotic charge out of every caress. Only a gay audience can fully comprehend the meaning of the play and fully respond to this production.

Wolfe, the director, was outed during the rehearsals for the Broadway production of Angels in America, which he directed. Choosing this play, which seems to be very close to his personal experience as a gay AfricanAmerican artist, to open his first full season as artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival, strikes me as both a personal and political statement. If I'm right, he's experiencing the rush of relief and empowerment that being out brings, even when, as in my own situation, you think you are much too worldly to be so profoundly affected by it. I'm not sure how straight audiences will respond to Blade to the Heat. Its meanings will be perfectly clear to queers who will be deeply touched by its depiction of the damage wrought by rigid definitions of masculinity and the closeting of identity.

Blade to the Heat continues at the New York Shakespeare Festival through November 27, Tuesday-Saturday at 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $35 and may be reserved at 212-598-7150.

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