Date: Fri 19-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

TheatreWorks-McNally-Love

Full Text:

(rev "Love! Valour! Compassion! @TheatreWorks New Milford)

Searching For Love, The Men In TheatreWorks' Latest Find Life

(with cut)

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD -- In his "Ode on a Grecian Urn" the English poet Keats reflected

on the paradox of the figures painted on the vase. Frozen in the moment, they

would never get to consummate their desires or fulfill their expectations.

However, by the same token, they would never have to experience the

dissolution of love or the impairments of age that are inevitably linked to

existence in the stream of time.

The inexorability of Time is the underlying theme of Terrance McNally's

award-winning play, Love! Valour! Compassion! , whose three acts span the

holiday weekends that traditionally mark the beginning, middle and end of

summer. TheatreWorks New Milford is currently giving Mr McNally's emotional

work its Connecticut premiere.

Eight men gather at a secluded estate in upstate New York, guests of a

prominent New York choreographer who is eager to share his own good fortune

with his friends. A successful creative artist, Gregory rejoices in the

overflowing richness of his life: he loves his work, he loves his friends, and

he especially loves his companion Bobby, an intense, sensitive, much younger

man who has been blind since birth.

The plot revolves around the interactions between the characters, who are tied

together by their common homosexuality but who represent a diverse assortment

of lifestyles and personality types. Buzz is the swishily effeminate clown who

masks his loneliness and fear with campy humor and a preoccupation with old

musicals, while Perry and Arthur, the lawyer and accountant who look as if

they stepped discreetly off the pages of a Land's End catalogue, are

celebrating 14 years as a "married" couple.

Then there is Ramon, the strikingly handsome young dancer with the buffed up

physique and the limited vocabulary who has been brought along as the "date"

of John Jeckyll, an unsuccessful composer and embittered cynic who has no real

friends, and has been invited out of pity, because he works as the rehearsal

pianist for Gregory's dance company and has nowhere else to go on Memorial

Day.

Separated from the others by the gaps of age, education and shared common

experience, Ramon is a predatory opportunist. He teases the others by

flaunting his sexuality, but is chiefly interested in what he can get from

Gregory -- whether it is a boost to his career, or a chance to seduce Bobby.

With careless cruelty, Ramon pushes Gregory to face the realities of middle

age. The choreographer is laboring to complete his latest composition, but

cannot get a grip on it; what had seemed a bottomless wellspring of creative

inspiration is starting to dry up, just as his tired and aching body is

rebelling against him. As Gregory realizes he is no longer the superb dancer

he once was, he intuits that one day he will be too old for Bobby as well.

Meanwhile AIDS casts a menacing shadow over all the holidays. On the Fourth of

July, John Jeckyll's identical twin brother James arrives from England, having

come to America to die. Feeble and debilitated by the disease, he is

nonetheless charming, uncomplaining and unfailingly pleasant to everyone

around him -- the complete antithesis of his obnoxious twin.

McNally's is given a fine interpretation at TheatreWorks. Under Newtowner Joe

Longo's highly capable direction, the more-than-three-hour-long work is

crisply placed, resulting in a powerful drama laced with riotous comedy.

There is some excellent acting, particularly by Vincent Roca as Ramon, Frank

Gaffney as Buzz, and Bill Hughes' portrayal of the Jeckyll twins. Continually

switching costumes and personas, Mr Hughes' performance is a flawless tour de

force.

J. Scott Williams and Todd Judson are convincing as the benevolent

choreographer and his troubled lover. Dennis Martin and Anthony Carregal do a

good job as the squabbling married couple, Arthur and Perry.

Advance publicity made much of the fact that the production entails a great

deal of nudity, which it does. In part this was explained by a desire for

realism -- as in the claim that on a private, 40-acre estate, the men were

hardly likely to wear bathing suits when they went skinny dipping (an activity

featured prominently in the plot).

More significantly, because the nude scenes highlight the contrast between the

particularly attractive bodies of the two young men, and the resolutely

ordinary shapes of the other characters, they serve to articulate the

complicated relationship between sex and love in the gay world.

It is part of the canon that appearances are all important, and confronted

with Ramon the others are clearly tempted by him and indulge in happy

fantasies. In a lifestyle where promiscuity is common, does sexual arousal

constitute emotional betrayal? This is the source of Bobby's guilt and

Gregory's anguish.

It seems clear in this play, however, that love, as found in the relationships

between the other characters is stronger and more lasting than a fleeting

attraction. Mixed with valour and compassion (as the title tells us) they see

each other through the difficult passage of life.

(Performances continue through June 27, with curtain Friday and Saturday at 8

pm. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for children. Call TheatreWorks at

350-6863 for additional information.)