"Safe
Sex" is an excellent choice for the Nebraska AIDS Project benefit this weekend at the
Firehouse Dinner Theater. For one thing, Harvey Fierstein's three, one-act plays are
little masterpieoes of verbal counterpoint --sentimentality balanced against anger,
reality against romantic notions. |
For another, the
plays are expertly acted and directed by top local talent. "Manny and
Jake," directed by Carolyn Rutherford, is a taut, interestingly stylized
confrontation between a gay man traumatized by fear of AIDS and his more casual and less
fearful partner. Eric O'Brien is impressive as Manny, formerly promiscuous, now frozen
into a strange, distant state in which he repeats a litany of cautions, always beginning
with words, "Two grown men"
Manny's would-be lover (R Scott Shanks) is frustrated and exasperated by
Manny's behavior. "I'm not people anymore, 'Manny says, "I'm a carrier of a
disease." Humor and despair alternate in this well-realized piece.
In "Safe Sex," subtitled "An Argument," Jim Hoggatt gives
a thoroughly entertaining performance as Ghee, who welcomes back his straying lover, Mead
(Scott Gofta).
The two balance on a bright red seesaw - the only prop
onstage - as the two hash out their relationship.
This is an impressively well-written drama, full of
sharp humor, little surprises, an agreeable sentimentality and a running quarrel. It has
good acting and excellent direction "On Tidy Endings" is the longest and most
intricate of the works. This quiet, appropriately funeral piece features Laura Marr, as
the ex-wife of a person with AIDS who meets with her ex-husband Colin's gay lover to sign
legal documents that divide his estate; and Marty Magnuson, exploring all the shades of
Fierstein's complex character Arthur, who nursed Colin through his illness.
Directed by her husband, Doug Marr, Mrs. Marr gives
one of her best performances in recent years.
Love, commitment, grief, resentment, loss and comedy
divide and bring together these two not-so-different people.
Fierstein has a genius for avoiding polemic and
propaganda for zeroing in on the human aspects of homosexuality. |
