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THE NORMAL HEART
By Larry Kramer
Uptown Players
REVIEWED 08/05/06 PERFORMANCE
Directed by Regan Adair
Scenic Design by Wade Giampa
Costume Design by Suzi Shankle
Lighting Design by Jason Foster
CAST
Dr. Emma Brookner…….......................…Emily Scott Banks
Craig/Grady/Doctor/Orderly….................Shane Beeson
Mickey Marcus…………………..............Jack Birdwell
Ben Weeks……………………….............Bob Hess
David/Hiram/Doctor/Orderly....................Steve Iwanski
Tommy Boatright………………...............Cedric Neal
Felix Turner…………………...................Mark Shum
Ned Weeks………………………............Paul Taylor
Bruce Niles…………………....................Elias Taylorson
____________________________ THE NORMAL HEART_________________________
"Who cares if another faggot dies?"
-Dr. Emma Brookner, THE NORMAL HEART.
Gary Fertsch. Gary was a very close friend of mine since high school. A
tall, handsome kid with an explosion of blonde hair and who had a
vociferous laugh. He also happened to be a very talented artist who
loved to paint. He worked after school in the mall and I would visit him
there where we would laugh for hours, play at the video arcade, & eat a
delicious mixture of popcorn from the confectionary-all in the mall. He
would see me in summer stock and discuss what was wrong or right with
the shows and my performances. But mostly we were two high school kids
who discussed in great length what we wanted to do with our lives.
After graduation our lives took different paths, I went to college and
he went out into the world. But then during my first semester at UNT, we
reconnected. He was living in Austin and I went down there for spring
break. Its as we never lost touch! We laughed, laughed, and talked
forever. It was during this visit he revealed he had AIDS. He would be
the first person who was so close to me to have the disease. Gary told
no one except his closest friends and sister-that was it. Certainly not
anyone back home in Kerrville Texas, a small, heavily religious town
where we both were born and raised. Gary would die several years later.
He lost his life during the AIDS era that is known as the "first wave of
the plague."
Since Gary, I have lost friends from high school, college, and so many
within the theater world. That first wave took many. Way too many.
Now some twenty some odd years as I sat in the darken theater watching
THE NORMAL HEART, Gary's face popped into my head- then one after
another- faces flashed before my eyes. Friends, colleagues, fellow
actors, and so on of those who perished from AIDS. So many gone. Why? It
occurred to me right then and there how much AIDS has fallen out of the
forefront of the battle. Today it's all about the right to marry.
Larry Kramer's angry play takes us back to the origins of the first wave
of the plague. Kramer was a founding member of the Gay Men's Health
Crisis. His "in your face" tactics to get his voice and cause heard was
not only clamorous, but turned many away from him and his fight. When
the GMHC fired him as a board member, Kramer did not disappear, instead
he helped create one of the most vocal, political organizations that at
times had guerrilla tactics to fight the AIDS war- that organization was
called ACT UP.
Where AIDS was first being talked about, it was just mentioned as a rare
form of gay cancer on page 20 of the New York Times. Watching the play
(currently produced by Uptown Players) vividly reminds us of that era in
all its ugly, piercing, cathartic honesty.
I sincerely wished though that Kramer's play had stayed more within the
confines of the heart, love, passion, and arcs of his characters,
instead of trying to also explain all the facts, figures, & statistics
of the disease. At times within the play, characters spoke endless
theories, charts, & numbers right in the middle of raw, naked emotion.
Honestly in real life when we fight from the very core of our hearts, do
we bring up facts and clippings from TIME or NEWSWEEK? We don't.
Kramer's piece works so much better when the focus stays within the
relationships and the lives of his characters.
However I will say that the facts and startling figures are alarming &
does surprise you, but that was back in the 1980s, so it is frightening
to think how much those facts and numbers have changed since then. It's
enough to put a cold chill down your spine.
Physically the production looks superior. Wade Giampa's minimalist set
is painted in blinding white with cascading sheets of white linen on
either side of the proscenium. The couch, chairs, table, even the props
are all white. There is though a great visual of subtext of only having
the phones painted blood red (Amy Fisher is responsible for the props
for this production).
Jason Foster bathes the white set in neutral earth tones with a slight
hint of color here and there. Suzi Shankle's costumes are right on the
money in tone, period, and color. Special kudos goes to Multimedia
designer Chris Robinson who created an array of images for the massive
video screen upstage center. While the scene changes, Robinson flashes
on screen clips from newspaper articles, photographs, and at times
graphic pictures of AIDS patients. Oddly enough when Ronald Reagan's
face appeared, you literally saw many in the audience shift in their
seats-I even heard behind me a soft whisper of "boo" from an audience
member. Even almost twenty some odd years later, the anger is still
there for many who despised Reagan's neglect of the AIDS war.
Speaking of scene changes, director Regan Adair has worked the turntable
at El Centro College to his advantage. When the scene ends, the stage
turns softly with the actors still in the moment, all done in
silhouette. This gave the production a seamless flow that never once was
broken. Even the stagehands were dressed in apropos costuming to adjust
furniture or to remove props. As an audience member I love this kind of
detailed direction because it keeps the emotion and the piece flowing,
thereby not snapping us back into reality and reminding us
we're at a play.
Regan Adair's direction is sublime to say the least. The blocking and
staging is very organic, with honesty moving the actors-not because we
had to go downstage because there is empty space that needs to be
filled. The pace is crisp and direct. Adair wisely keeps his actors
firmly encased in truthful performances and not swallowing themselves
into melodramatics. The only problem with Adair's direction was his
decision to use music constantly in the scene changes. Some of the
underscore was fine, however during the dramatic scenes it cheated the
audience just a little in keeping within the moment. After a harsh,
graphic, ripping of the human heart with searing emotion scene had
reached its crescendo, the scene changed. But then soft, orchestration
music played, which the scene really does not need. The amazing
performances alone achieve the goal without forcing the audience to tear
up with underscore.
The entire cast is superb, with Paul Taylor heading up the cast as "Ned
Weeks", who really is Larry Kramer. Taylor is phenomenal and gives his
best performance of his career. You sense Kramer is right behind Taylor
to feel every emotion that is written on the page. But where Taylor
truly is marvelous is that he gives Ned a warm, loving glow-which helps
so much more in understanding his boisterous, almost Machiavellian
anger.
His finest work comes in the extremely difficult emotional scenes of Act
Two. It is raw, honest, gut wrenching, & so real you almost want to
leave the theater so that you can leave all that tension and simply
breathe. It's that organically honest. Taylor is also a very giving and
supportive actor-he connects with effulgent honesty with everyone on
stage. When others take over the stage, he reacts with soft, internal
emotions-but just enough to show the horrific pain he must feel. Mr.
Taylor in my opinion gives one of the best performances I've seen on the
Dallas stage this season.
As the lone female in the company, Emily Scott Banks provides an
exhilarating, controlled, and bold performance as Dr. Emma Brookner. She
is a doctor who is seeing case after case of men becoming ill so fast
with no assistance from her colleagues, the mayor, or the federal
government. She pushes Ned (Taylor) to become the voice for this dying
society, which he finally does.
Banks has one of the most compassionate, noble monologues in the second
act at a medical hearing that left the audience speechless. You
unequivocally want to give her a standing ovation at the end of this
intense, savage attack on her fellow doctors for not wanting to help her
or her cause. The harsh glow of the spotlight captures Banks' tears well
up in her eyes as she finally allows herself to feel for all those that
have died in her care. I must divulge here that I was an emotional mess
at the end of that scene, thanks to Ms. Banks powerful work.
Bob Hess as "Ben Weeks" is another excellent performance on a crowded
stage of transcendent work done by his fellow thespians. Ben is Ned's
straight, married, rich lawyer. Some of the finest duet scene work comes
from Hess and Taylor as they peel the layers of a loving, yet very
conflicted relationship between siblings. Hess is affable, kind, &
endearing, but when pushed finally against the wall by his brother, Hess
lets out the inner, conflicted beast within him, shredding Taylor's
heart in the process. Hess goes deep into the subtext and reveals
blinding, uncomfortable truth that forces the audience to turn away in
pain, that's how damn good Hess is in this performance.
Oddly enough I thought the best monologue of the evening belonged to
Jack Birdwell as "Mickey Marcus". Kramer's combination of actual facts
and theories with the human approach of his own life flows with such
merciless honesty that you truly get Kramer's voice here. Birdwell gives
amazing depth, range, and scope to his attack on this monologue that
leaves you drained emotionally by the end. Why? Because you understand
completely what Birdwell's closeted teacher feels and why his heart
burns with such anger, confusion, and contempt. Birdwell is magnificent
within this piece and especially with this monologue.
Also delivering smashing, terrific performances are Cedric Neal as
"Tommy Boatright"; Elias Taylorson as "Bruce Niles"; and Mark Shum as
"Felix Turner". Neal provides the only big laughs of the evening-which
the audience is very thankful for. There are a lot of raw, open
emotions spilled on the stage, and Neal deeply helps ease the tension
with a loveable, very funny performance.
Taylorson provides the right amount of anger and tension as a rich gay
executive having to live his life in the closet. Shum is "Felix", a New
Times journalist who writes about fashion and New York high society.
Shum is phenomenal in his work-particularly with Taylor and Hess during
Act Two. Both Shum and Taylorson's work in the second act leave audience
members wiping tears from their faces in the cold darkness of the
theater.
THE NORMAL HEART may sound a little dated, but it really isn't. Many of
the battles and arguments that are explored on stage are still going on
today. We must never forget the first wave of the plague, never.
I sincerely hope that you do not think that this is just a "gay" play,
because it is so much more. It shows in naked honesty the way AIDS
destroyed so many lives-both gay and straight. How love & friendship is
what kept so many going.
For me personally, THE NORMAL HEART stands out as not only the best play
of the Dallas season so far, but also the finest collection of actors
put together on one stage. Combine that with exquisite direction, you
have the must see dramatic play of the season.
GRADE: A-
______________________________________________________________________
THE NORMAL HEART plays through August 20, 2006. Shows at 8 p.m. on
Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Due to the temporary
closing of the Trinity River Arts Center for reconstruction,
performances will take place at El Centro College Performance Hall.
The College is located at 801 Main Street in downtown Dallas near the
West End. The entrance to the Performance Hall is located on Market
Street, near the corner of Main and Market Streets. Parking is available
in the Bank of America Building Garage on the corner of Main and Austin
Streets, one block from the theater. Tickets are $22-25 and can be
purchased online at www.uptownplayers.org or by phone at 214-219-2718. |
