Playwright: Jonathan Tolins
At: Bailiwick Repertory, 1229 W. Belmont
Phone: (773) 883-1090; $22-$25
Runs through: July 25
It's ironic that the Bailiwick is presenting—as part of its annual Pride series—a relatively new play that sets the notion of 'gay theater' on its ear (or whatever other bodily appendage might come to mind). The Last Sunday in June chronicles 'Pride Day' in a Greenwich Village apartment where the annual parade is going by (one older, jaded queen remarks during the course of the action, 'We used to have marches; now we have a parade.'). Tom and Michael, the couple who inhabit the apartment, seem to be past getting caught up in the drama of the annual festivities. Michael wants to bypass them entirely and use the day for lamp shopping at Pottery Barn. A house in the suburbs appears to be on the horizon for the couple, suggesting assimilation and the leaving behind of almost all things queer. Tom is willing to go along, but manifests his reluctance by attempting to seduce his partner and when that doesn't work, begins casually inviting acquaintances, friends, and ex-lovers over to watch the parade from their apartment window.
Playwright Tolins assembles a fabulous cast of characters: the aging, promiscuous HIV-positive gym bunny and sharp-tongued wit; the recently sprung from the closet young hottie; the aging opera queen, the requisite shirtless hunk; and finally, the bitter 'ex-gay' who desperately wants to flee 'the life' and will marry a woman to accomplish it. Once the characters are in place, Tolins has them anticipate what will happen and what will be said by using the conceit of having them wonder what would occur if this were a 'gay play.' The idea is a funny one and could have real stamina if Tolins were more willing to push it over the top. But somewhere along the way, this send-up of gay plays becomes yet another gay play itself, bolstering its archetypes while trying to tear them down at the same time. Tolins wants to have his own cock and suck it too. He isn't nimble enough as a writer to do that.
However that's not to say that The Last Sunday in June doesn't have a lot to recommend it. As a gay play, it has some weight: Tolins dialogue is clever and natural and each of his characters has his or her own unique way of speaking. At the heart of the piece is a very real message about what it means to be a couple and the choices one makes in order to find human connection. Jay Paul Skelton's direction is assured; he resists any temptation to make the production overblown or campy. Matthew Morton's set is detailed and realistic enough to easily transport. But it's the cast that really draws us in and holds us. Even when they are little more than mouthpieces for the playwright's theses, they are all credible and completely natural.
Bailiwick has given birth to many of the plays this one purports to lampoon and I suppose The Last Sunday in June takes a step in the right direction. The gay play has become genre enough unto itself that it's ready to be held up and laughed at. I just wish that this effort could more effectively do that, instead of becoming essentially what it wants to ridicule. Still, this is a solid effort, and worth seeing. Just don't come expecting anything more than a professionally done 'gay play.'
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