Playwright: Lanford Wilson. At Oak Park Festival Theatre. Tickets: 708-445-4440; www.oakparkfestival.com; $27. Runs through: July 11
Gay playwright Lanford Wilson places lovers Kenneth Talley and Jed Jenkins at the center of his 1978 play Fifth of July, but it's not a "gay play." The play presents Ken and Jed's relationship as an unremarkable circumstance. However, Fifth of July is about Ken and Jed as a couple, but it covers a lot more, too, revolving around three generations of the Talley family and the family homestead in Lebanon, Mo. There's Ken's Aunt Sally with her husband's ashes, and Ken's sister June and her precocious 14-year-old daughter by her old radical friend John, now a successful pop-music producer.
Rather than focusing on one or two characters, it's a play of personalities and mostly small actions that fluidly shifts between all eight of the play's people. However, Ken is the indirect center, partly because he inherited the homestead. Having lost his lower legs in Vietnam, Ken has retreated from social interaction and professional opportunities ( he's a teacher ) despite his family's unflagging support and Jed's devotion. Ken strikes a neutral attitude about even the smallest things, fleeing from responsibility or challenge, unwilling to face himself although not openly self-pitying. At the play's climax, Ken offers to sell the homestead to John, who wants it for a recording studio. Aunt Sally counters this family betrayal by bidding against John for the property. John's wife, Gwen, another of the old friends who survived radical times and lots of drugs, finally confronts Ken, one survivor to another: "You are on the edge of nowhere. You're gonna' lose it all," she warns him.
If this sounds like heavy slogging then you don't know Lanford Wilson. Like Chekhov—with whom he often is compared—Wilson views his characters through a comedic lens: they are victims of their own follies rather than sinners, and all possess some degree of charm or sweetness.
Under director Michael Weber, Oak Park Festival has mounted an earnest and lively production of Fifth of July, with a fine cast featuring Stef Tovar ( Ken ) , Danny Bernardo ( Jed ) , Kate Kisner ( Aunt Sally ) and Rebekah Ward-Hays ( Gwen ) among an ensemble of equals. Ricky Lurie's late-1970's costumes—especially for John and Gwen—also add visual fun. However, the production doesn't find all the textures of the work, which subtly shifts tone or color almost from moment to moment. Conversations and events—when events occur—all are given equal weight. As a result, Aunt Sally's unexpected resolve and bidding war against John doesn't have the impact it needs as the Talleys close ranks against an outside threat.
The always-delightful Austin Gardens lush outdoor setting is a perfect environment for a play set in the summertime, occasional passing planes notwithstanding, although the out-of-doors may be what swallows the production's subtleties.