In a 2016 column in the British gay magazine Attitude, playwright
Patrick Cash confessed to a dick move he committed early on in his dating
life, when he was 23 years old. After meeting and hooking up with “one of
the nicest people [he’d] ever met,” a 20-year-old man who disclosed his
HIV-positive status before initiating consensual and protected sex, Cash
gave in to fear and stigma the following morning. “His status was why I
didn’t call up the boy again.”
Brennan T. Jones’s production, presented as one part of the five-play PAC
Pride Fest, features a number of tender, well-crafted direct-to-audience
addresses, including a stirring speech by Kathleen Puls Andrade as an AIDS
nurse facing down angry protesters. In another highlight, Nick recalls how
he only notices just how filthy he’s allowed his bathroom to become while
he’s stewed in a depressive crisis when he finds himself cowering and
sobbing in the shower. Bit by bit, he cleans away the dust and grime—
small but critical victory of self-love.
That’s particularly troublesome when it comes to the play’s comedic quips,
which—even when played to a decently filled house—were met with perplexed
silence on the night I attended. Inexplicably, long stretches of quiet
activities like tea tray setting and flower clipping result in a surreal,
fuguelike theatrical state akin to what it feels like to read the webcomicGarfield Minus Garfield. v
Through 7/7: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM (except Thu 7/5), Sat 3:30 PM; also Sun 7/1, 7:30 PM.The Green Bay Tree Through 7/8: Wed and Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Thu 7/5 7:30 PM. Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-857-0222, pridefilmsandplays.com, $23-$25.
