BUTLEY IS BACK

HIGH GEAR/SEPTEMBER 1977

PAGE 5

Can it be true that Simon Gray's Butley is being staged for the third time this year In Cleveland? Yup! Following David Frazier's brilliant performances at Cleveland State Uni-

versity's Factory Theatre and this weekend at Baldwin Wallace, Case Western Reserve University's Eldred Theatre is featuring the play September 30 through October 8.

Butley has been bewailed as a victim of the Boys-In-the-Band syndrome by some and hailed by others as positive "gay realism." This all-or-none criticism is possible because one can view

the conclusion as. either optimistic or pessimistic. Which is to say, one can speculate whether Joey and his new lover will be appreciably happier as a result of a more congruous. relationship, or whether as Butley predicts, they will experience his own tragedy in cyclical fashion.

In any case, the masterpiece, reactionary or not, forcefully depicts the transition from the "old school," closety, "mattachine" mode of gay life to the total commitment to gay lifestyles which the newer "peppy and preppy" gay male finds more comfortable. Although Butley despises and abuses his wife, he can't entirely detach himself from her. Joey I and his new mate make little pretense at being straight, a luxury younger gay men can afford in changing times.

C.W.R.U.'s rendering of the drama must be anticipated apprehensively because Robert Berkman appears rather young to portray a veteran English prof (unless he is made up more convincingly than his publicity shots exhibit him). Frazier's is a difficult act to follow quite apart from the fact that he is a "natural" for the part. The suggestion of a peer conflict between Butley and Joey could

monstrously shatter the thematio thrust of the work and leave the audience dependent on the genius of the script atone for an evening's entertainment.

If you haven't seen Butley yet, the beginning of next month is your last chance, unless, of course, Cleveland tries for a fourth run of a homosexual classic!

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