Would-be gay in lively play

By R. Woodward

Albert Innaurato's play Gemini, at the Cleveland Playhouse through January 13, is an unusually vivid genre painting that shows us some of the

inhabitants of an Italian neighborhood in South Philadelphia. Early in the morning of the day before his 21st birthday. Francis Geminiani, a scholarship student home from Harvard for the summer, looks out his back window and is dismayed. Arriving unannounced are Judith Hastings and her younger brother Randy, two well-to-do WASPs he knows from school. They have brought sleeping bags and a tent and are about to make into a camp site the concrete slab that serves as the back yard.

Francis's father, another Francis called Fran, appears and with his usual friendly and boisterous manner bids the new-

comers make themselves at home. With Fran, as usual, is Lucille, a widow from the neighborhood whois his lady friend. Working-class as Fran is, Lucille

is nonethess ever-determined to

maintain a proper lady-like comportment. She is at the moment embarrassed at being seen in her housecoat by strangers.

She is also embarrassed, not just at the moment but all the time, by Bunny Weinberger, the Geminianis once voluptuous next-door neighbor, a rough talker and heavy drinker who refers to Lucille as "the Holy

Clam."

Bunny, who has already started to make the young visitors breakfast, has a sixteen-year-old son named Herschel. Herschel, as Bunny likes to tell everyone, is a genius with an IQ. of "187 or 172, depending on which test

you use." He is also fat, asthcrasies does not make any of matic, and obsessed with public the characters in this play outtransportation. He amuses him--siders. Everyone regards Franself by riding around on a cis as being someone who tricycle pretending that he is a belongs. Lucille, in talking to subway engine. Judith about the possibility of his "being queer," feels obliged to state that he will continue to belong no matter what. Being gay would not make him any less a member of the community than anyone else.

Most of what there is of a plot deals with Judith trying to confront young Francis. At college, she made overt erotic advances that Francis did not resist and she now regards herself as being in love with him. Francis regards himself as being in love with her younger brother Randy.

Randy, like all of the young men that Francis has had crushes on, has not been told of his feelings. Francis, who is rather plump, regards himself as being unattractive. A number of young women, however, have found him attractive enough to oblige and he has at times done what was expected of him. But his yearings have continued to

be elsewhere.

The play's ending, a final, sudden scurry of activitiy, is not the definite resolution of Francis's problems that many take it to be. A number of people, especially the politically edgy, have seen this ending as being a sop for straights. They interpret it as showing Francis deciding that he is not gay so that twitchy Philistines can have a conventional "happy" ending. One can easily conclude, however, that Francis has merely put off coming out until God knows when. (It is also possible that the playwright just happened to want a snappy ending and that the rushing around we see as the play ends is simply all that he could think of.)

and that

Far more important than

arguing over the playwright's ending is noticing how he relates Francis to his home environment.

Having personal idiosyn-

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Normalcy, the playwright suggests, can be a phantom destructive to pursue. One of the most important characters in Gemini is one we never see. This is Francis's mother, Fran's ex-wife. When Francis was very young she left Fran's house and the neighborhood, unable to stand living among those who stand out.

No one seems to resent her for having gone. Fran wishes his ex-wife well, calls her and her second husband "good people." His only regret is that she had a hysterectomy before she left and can have no children with her second husband. Those obsessed with normalcy, the playwright seems to be suggest ing. exclude themselves from much of life, sterilize themselves.

In peforming this play, the cast at the Playhouse proves that you do not need much plot development if the people depicted are interesting enough.

Christina Whitmore as Judith and Robert Rhys as her brother Randy show all of the great alertness that their parts demand. Much of the play's dramatic tension depends upon one's being

tness that their para demand.

able to have reservations about

these two, while being able to

call them "nice kids" and "beautiful people" without being sarcastic.

Randy, without trying to be, is

concerned with being readily articulate than she is with noticing how well her being articulate fits into situations at hand. That Francis hestitates to continue his relationship with her is due partly to her being so ready with pat answers to all life's big questions. Rhys and Whitmore manage to got these various points across without being unsubtle.

James Kisicki plays Fran, the father, and except for seeming a bit too polite, he is very persuasive as a warm, boisterous individual who is deeply tolerant rather than superfically courteous. With sure, deft strokes Julia Curry deicts Lucille Pompi, the kindly but fastidious and obstinate widow who is Fran's mistress. Her performance is as sharply etched as a picture from a master engraver.

Paul A. Floriani, as Francis, is young enough to look exactly like the character he plays while being mature enough artistically to have the understanding and skill to play the character with

complete authority. His performance here is an outstanding example of an actor getting into his role completely.

Evie McElroy's performance as Bunny Weinberger, the swaggering and profane nextdoor neighbor, is full-bodied in several senses of the word. Vast amounts of energy are deftly marshalled here to continually devastate the audience.

James Richards, as Bunny's sixteen-year-old son Herschel, also regales. Fat, asthmatic, in love with old streetcars, and

sixteen-year-old son Herschel,

CLOTHING, CRYSTAL, AND CLIPS GALORE! JEWELRY, INCENSE,

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seventeen he is too callow to be able to deal properly with all of the people who want him. He is cruel at times in hasty self defense. Judith is a very intelligent young woman who is more

WITH BOB DAMRON'S ADDRESS BOOK 79

HIGH GEAR Page 17

given to feigning fits, Herschel is a lot less aggressive than his mother but no less overt in being himself. McElroy and Richards manage to be incredible with complete credibility. As handled by these actors, Bunny and Herschel are living beings and not just funny ideas of the author.

Some of the insights into Innaurato's text that the actors convey so well must have come from Kenneth Albers, the director. This production shows a consistent high level of intelligence throughout and is wellbalanced and well-timed. The script juxtaposes pathos, grossness, wistfulness, sarcasm, and consideration, and each element is given just the right emphasis.

In the middle of one of The Cleveland Playhouse's liveliest seasons in years, this production of Gemini is this season's liveliest production so far.

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