EVENINGS OUT
McNally's new gay play grows in its Broadway run
by Barry Daniels
After a sold-out nine week run at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! has transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre to start what promises to be a long and award-winning
Mitchell and with Ramon. What McNally wants us to think about is the difference between love that is conditional and love that is unconditional. Mitchell is too absorbed in his art to see and hear Bobby. For different reasons both Ramon Fornos, the hot Hispanic dancer, and James Jeckyll, the bitter,
MARTHA SWOPE
"We're role models, now!" quips Perry (Anthony Heald, right) to Arthur, his lover of 14 years (John Benjamin Hickey).
engagement. That our loves, hopes, fears and desires can be presented in such a public arena is tremendously affirming for a gay audience. Although we share the theatrical experience with the straight people in the house, the knowing laughter and the tears belong to us.
McNally presents an inside look at gay life through the group portrait of eight friends who celebrate three holiday weekends together at the country home of famous choreographer Gregory Mitchell, situated on an isolated lake in Dutchess County, New York. Like Mitchell's beloved 1915 house, the play is a beautifully crafted piece of writing that delicately weaves narration and commentary with dramatic action. Its qualities of reflection and thoughtfulness keep it from being either too sentimental or too sensational.
Joe Mantello's sensitive staging has lost none of its beauty and eloquence in the transfer to the larger theatre. The bare platform and luminous, changeable blue sky of Loy Arcenas's set have an almost abstract quality that admirably leave the space free for the creation of complex characters. The six actors who were in the original production seem to have mellowed and deepened in their roles. Anthony Heald, who replaces Stephen Spinella, is rather bland at present, but he will hopefully grow into the part as the run progresses.
Having a second chance to see Love! Valour! Compassion! is a kind of luxury for me. I'm pleased to report I laughed harder and cried harder than the first time. Like all fine work, it moved the audience and made them think. My friend and I repaired to the warmth of a nearby bar and had a lively twohour discussion after the performance. I'd like to try to express some of these thoughts by commenting on the play's title.
Love: At the center of the play Bobby Brahms, Mitchell's blind boyfriend, has a monologue where he compares God's unconditional love of mankind with the love between human beings, which seems to him to be conditional. This is Bobby's perspective based on his own experiences with
failed composer, are incapable of giving love to each other or to others. Ramon is simply an object of a personal fantasy for James; and Ramon treats Bobby as an object in his own personal struggle with Mitchell.
In contrast to the painful reality of the failed relationships in the play, McNally presents two couples who are capable of unconditional love. Lawyer Perry Sellars and accountant Arthur Pape are celebrating their 14th anniversary together. It is clear they have each accepted the other for what he is and not tried to make him conform to some imagined version of a lover. When they talk, they are listening to each other. They know each others needs and respond to them. The same qualities are shared by Buzz Hauser, Mitchell's costumer, and James Jeckyll, John's twin brother. Both men are dying of AIDS. Their love brings some temporary respite from the
horrors of the disease.
Valour is most clearly represented by Buzz and James in their struggle to maintain their dignity and humanity as the disease ravages their bodies. They show the strength of the human spirit when it faces calamity. McNally points this up in a quiet scene between Perry and Arthur who express their feeling of guilt at being free from infection. I think valor in the play is not limited to the way AIDS is confronted. It can also be seen as the valor of gay men who have lived in a world that too often oppresses them. Buzz's outburst, "I'm sick of straight people. There's too goddamn many of them!" reminds us of this reality. Later in the play, when Perry, watching the news, sees gay men beaten by the police during a gay rights march, he reminds us of the all too frequent truth, "They hate us."
Compassion is perhaps the overriding feeling created by the men McNally has portrayed. In spite of their many differences and frequent conflicts, they are a compassionate fraternity. They remind us how important the network of loving friends is as a kind of alternative family unit in the gay community.
The media have made a big deal of the nudity in Love! Valour! Compassion! If it sells tickets, I can't complain about the brouhaha. It is important to understand that the nudity is much more than a publicity gimmick, however. McNally has not tried to neuter his characters to make them palatable to straight audiences, as was done with the silly-looking underwear in the love scenes between Louis and Joe in Angels in America. McNally explores the tension that often exists between love and erotic adventure. The bodies on display are about desire and the erotic. It is a theatrically effective way for McNally to make his point.
Love! Valour! Compassion! is playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre at 219 West 48th Street in New York, Tuesday-Saturday at 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm, and Sunday at 7 pm. Tickets are $15-$45 and can by ordered through tele-charge at 212-239-6200.
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