The
company of dedicated theater folks called convergence-continuum has long had a
commitment to presenting gay-themed shows, or at least plays with significant
LGBTQ roles. And good for them since, over the years, plays with such themes
and characters have been stuck in the shadows.
That
said, the title of the play by Siegmund Fuchs, In the Closet, might be better titled “On the Nose.” True to its
title, the play takes place in a very spacious gay man’s closet where clothes
are neatly displayed (well hung?) all around the walls of the small theater
space.
Inside
that space, we meet three gay guys dubbed “Old Man,” “Middle-Aged Man,” and
“Young Man” (just so we don’t get confused). Those three gentlemen share small
talk about, you know, being gay, until a young fellow named John catapults
himself into the closet with them.
At
this point, if you’re hearing the high-pitched squeal of a metaphor being
stretched to its breaking point, you wouldn’t be mistaken. Playwright Fuchs is
determined to make points about how hard it is to be gay, and dammit he’s not
going to let the niceties of playwriting get in the way.
Over
the course of two hours, those four characters act out various scenes from
their pasts. And in an Act One closer that is about surprising as being told
some interior designers are gay, we are informed of a fact that most in the
audience have already figured out: That all the men in this closet are the same
person, at different stages of his life. Setting aside the issue that there are
two young men representing the same person at that age, this device enables
John to see what will become of his life.
Yes,
it’s a faux Frank Capra-esque gay version of It’s a Wonderful Life with lots of cock talk and regrets that end
up tangled in a maudlin conclusion. Fuchs actually has a budding talent for
humorous lines, and some of them land effectively. However, others are so
predictable you can deliver the punch lines before the actors do.
The
playwright’s inclination to lecture the audience on one hand and then devolve
into weepy histrionics on the other eventually becomes exhausting. Fuchs seems
to sense that he’s being a bit too didactic at times, and has the Old Man throw
in dismissive asides to take the edge off the “lessons.” But that too is an
overdone device.
A
central conflict involving the memory of a gang rape of the Young Man years
ago, with him strapped to a swing (!), feels a bit florid, extraneous and hard
to decipher: Exactly which guys raped him? And why? In some ways, the narration
of this attack feels like a propaganda scene that might have been written by
the Westboro Baptist Church in a Reefer Madness-style
film, “Homos Gone Mad!!”
Director
Cory Molnar tries to sort all this out, and he uses a table and some chairs in
multiple and inventive ways to stage the flashbacks. As for the actors—Clyde
Simon, Jason Romer, Mike Frye and David Lenahan—they do their best to evoke the
various stages of John’s life. But even
though they sometimes parrot the same catch phrases, it’s hard to find a tangible thread that connects them all.
There
lies the problem of animating a metaphor. It’s why, when someone on stage says,
“It’s raining men,” a volley of actors don’t fall from the flies and land in a
heap. Sadly, that’s where the egregiously extended metaphor of In the Closet also lands.
In
the Closet
Through
November 4, produced by convergence-continuum at The Liminis, 2438 Scranton
Rd., 216-687-0074, convergence-continuum.org
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