Thief River. Photo by Adam Webster__________
If the emotions experienced by audiences are even half as powerful as those of the Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated playwright and local director of Thief River, viewers are in for a memorable, and perhaps gut-wrenching, experience. Thief River, the side project theater company's first gay-themed play, will run through May 25.
Thief River tells the story of Gil and Ray through three eras: the late 1940s, early 1970s and the present. Director Jarrett Dapier calls the pair 'two almost painfully anonymous men,' and says the play is structured in such a way as to relay what choices led them to their hurt, haunted and lonely conditions. 'The convention [ playwright Lee ] Blessing uses to tell this story is poetic, disarming and compelling,' he said. 'Each scene is fractured by new scenes in different time periods, fragments from letters [ and ] direct audience addresses, all showing us how Gil and Ray piece their own story together in their heads.'
People will inevitably draw comparisons between Thief River and Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx's short story that was later developed into an Ang Lee film. Blessing says of the similarities: 'I was unaware of Annie Proulx's story when I wrote Thief River in 2000. They're just coincidental tales on generally the same theme. My guys wear farmer hats and her guys wear cowboy hats. ... And neither was written by a gay man; perhaps that's one of the most important similarities. Gay male themes are becoming of interest to a broader spectrum of writers.'
Blessing says the origins of the play go back some 17 years before it was even written. 'I'd created a different [ now defunct ] script about a heterosexual couple that used the same 50-year relationship, three-age-pairings-of-actors theatrical concept. That show didn't work as a love story, mostly because the obstacles weren't large enough. When I made the couple gay, it transformed the idea into something with vastly more relevance—especially considering the 50 years involved, roughly 1950-2000.'
Dapier says he was drawn to the material because 'I am drawn to plays in which characters are intelligent and have very deep emotional needs, but are unable to achieve those needs because of the personal, social, political, and cultural forces dictating their lives and senses of identity. Blessing has written a deeply felt, extensively thought-through play that illustrates completely how cultural attitudes and biases towards homosexuals have affected, wrecked and held back the lives of average Americans, particularly Midwestern [ ers ] , in the last 55 years.'
Dapier had no qualms about labeling the play as 'gay-themed.' In fact, he said, 'If Angels in America is the consummate/paramount/definitive work about the experience of New York homosexuals in the political, cultural, and religious moment of the Reagan '80s, then Thief River is the definitive work capturing the homosexual experience in the rural American Midwest over the last 50 years.'
Both Dapier and Blessing have specific hopes for what audiences would take away from their viewings of the play. For Drapier, it was about identification and education. For Blessing, there's a hope that the universal message of love comes through. 'As with any other love story, I hope they'll exit with an enhanced sense of how difficult real love is to hold on to, even in the best of circumstances.'
Thief River is running at the side project, 1439 W. Jarvis. Tickets are $15-$20. Call 773-973-2150.