By Charl Reineke
Artscape, being an ardent host for all artists, once again proved their true “Love! Valour! Compassion!” towards the Arts.
The play written by Terrence McNally opened on Tuesday, February 1 to a captivated audience, albeit within the Covid-19 Restrictions.
A play that won the 1995 Tony Award for best play and saw its debut in 1994 off Broadway and then moved to Broadway in 1995.
The story of eight gay men spending the summer (three holiday weekends) at the 19th century home in New York of Gregory, a middle aged dancer living with his young blind lover Robert. Among the guests are Perry and Arthur, two young suburban professionals celebrating their 14th anniversary.
John (an ex-Brit) and his twin brother James( who is in the advanced stages of Aids and whom he hates) played by one actor, together with his companion Ramon, who is intrigued, if not infatuated, with the young Robert.
The eighth guest is an eccentric Broadway musicals fan Buzz, who is also dealing with his HIV-positive status and has a big heart and is a drama queen of note.
Although the play may seem to some as irrelevant in today's time, this couldn't be further from the truth.
Aids is still with us, but it's the friendship and intertwined interpersonal relationships and their emotional status that is the main focus of the play.
All the characters are unique in their own way and can easily be identified by us or someone we know.
We all have issues which we deal with on a daily basis and it was portrayed in a very real manner, a slice of life as we know it.
There was nudity but personally I felt it wasn't that necessary to display so much of it, especially by Ramon, but in hindsight the director must have felt it fitting for the wanton character being portrayed.
On the whole the play had some wonderful humorous moments and memorable ones which carried some relevant messages to us.
The actors were all excellent in their roles and Glen Swart who plays Gregory, was impressive indeed.
The simple yet excellent use of cubes as the set and clever lighting was a mean feat in itself.
The play had a few technical issues such as the Opera house was maybe too big a venue for the play, which saw the audience struggling to hear some of the actors, especially when speaking from the back of the stage.
The play will run until February 12 at the Artscape Opera house in Cape Town and is worth going to see.
It has been a long time that we have been denied an entertaining night out at the theatre since the onset of Covid-19.