Playwright: Alexi Kaye Campbell. At: About Face at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 1-773-871-3000; www.aboutfacetheatere.com; $30. Runs through: July 13
For her finale as About Face artistic director, Bonnie Metgar offers a powerful and absorbing production that deepens and darkens as it progresses. With only four performers, it appears to present a relatively simple structure and familiar situations, but it quickly accumulates psychological mass of "Chekovian" depths, as one character mockingly observes. The play's sorrowful, chilling and poetic closing words are as unexpected as they are truthful: "You have been the prisoner of fear. You have only known how to hold on to things, and the things you have held have died in your hands."
Set in London, The Pride is split between 1958, when homosexuality still was illegal in the UK (and here), and 2008. England had a long history of punishing queers who flaunted it (Oscar Wilde, Alan Turing) while rewarding discreet poofters (Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir John Gielgud). The 1958 storyline introduces instinctive fag hag Sylvia, married to latent homosexual Philip. When Sylvia introduces Philip to discreetly gay writer Oliver, a fling ensues. Unable to cope with the emotional and physical ramifications, Philip rejects Oliver through physical brutality and then subjects himself to aversion therapy. The contemporary storyline has Sylvia as best gal pal when Philip leaves his lover, Oliver, because of Oliver's promiscuity. Providing a lighter counterweight to the gravity of the primary storyline, the 2008 scenario explores sex addiction vs. emotional love, and comments on gay chic.
Metzgar's first-rate cast features Patrick Andrews (Oliver), John Francisco (Philip), Jessie Fisher (Sylvia) and Benjamin Sprungen (various roles), all of them youthful-but-accomplished veteran actors. Andrews, Francisco and Sprungen also are About Face associate artists. They do Metzgar proud and she returns the compliment. Their English accents are good andabove allconsistent (Anita Deely, dialect coach) and they are convincing with playwright Alexi Campbell's occasionally-arch dialogue, some of which sounds as if written in the 1950's. As the play progresses and complexities deepen, Campbell makes greater use of monologue (or one-sided dialogue) in a way suggesting the influence of playwright Caryl Churchill. Of the four, Andrews has the largest role and, as audiences have come to expect from him, he delivers with naturalness and focus. His 1958 Oliver is discreet, passionate and emotionally needy while his 2008 Oliver is brazen, careless and emotionally needy.
The Pride peels its characters like an onion. Reflecting this, William Boles's scenic design becomes progressively more minimal, peeling away the décor of a smartly-furnished flat down to bare brick walls and the limbo of a spotlight in the dark (Becca Jeffords, lighting). Boles uses the small Richard Christiansen Theater with greater flexibility than I've seen before.
Arriving five years ago, Bonnie Metzgar (and supporters) saved About Face from financial disaster. We owe her a hearty "Well done!"