Playwright: Jon Marans. At: About Face Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: $40
Runs through: Feb. 18
The play is, first, a history lesson, its purpose to correct the popular myth of gay people in the United States owing their freedom to a handful of New York City clubbers who, inflamed by a vision of Judy Garland's funeral procession, rose up in spontaneous rebellion against their establishment persecutors. Since the conventions of docudrama—stationary first-person testimonials presented in talking-heads formation—while enlightening, can just as quickly become enervating, playwright Jon Marans wisely frames his chronicle in a Casablanca-like romance of sacrifice in service of a greater good.
The lovers, in this case, are Harry Hay, a Mayflower-pedigreed WASP and card-carrying Marxist, and Rudi Gernreich, a refugee Austrian fashion designer whose unisex apparel would revolutionize our nation's sartorial profile. In an early example of the personal leading to the political, Hay draws up a manifesto declaring gay men like themselves an oppressed minority and exhorting his fellow "temperamentals" ( in the coy insider-code of mid-20th-century Los Angeles ) to form a coalition, with its purpose to lobby government representatives for changes in the legislation conferring pariah status based in social prejudice.
If this doesn't sound as exciting as the out-of-the-closets-and-into-the streets approach to protest that we know it today, consider that in 1950, same-sex encounters were criminally classified as "lewd acts"—with the additional charge of "vagrancy" if perpetrated in a public place, e.g., a park or latrine—subject to, not merely harassment, but full-out arrest, making for a subsequent record as a "social deviant." In 1952, a member of the organization, which the founder dubbed the Mattachine Society, would stand trial and be acquitted—but only after confessing his sexual orientation. Is it any wonder that Hay and his cohorts initially adopt a policy of strict secrecy to minimize the long-term risk to jobs and families?
Marans makes no attempt to disguise the tactical similarities of this pioneering gay-rights movement to those of its leftist predecessors—indeed, at one point, the five conspirators invoke Tom Joad's famous speech from The Grapes of Wrath—while in no way diminishing its significance, nor does About Face director Andrew Volkoff trivialize the emotional journey of Hay and Gernreich or the difficult decisions that ultimately drive them apart. The five actors—Kyle Hatley, Lane Anthony Flores, Alex Weisman, Rob Lindley and Paul Fagen—likewise endow each of their multiple characters with dignity and compassion, even during moments of wry humor. The accuracy of their portrayals is confirmed by reports of former Mattachine adherents ( and, now, residents of the Town Hall Apartments ) in attendance.
