‘Love! Valour! Compassion!’ is a play that gets gay

I had the great fortune of speaking with Bernie Cardell, the director of Vintage Theatre’s production of Love! Valour! Compassion!. And, if that wasn’t enough good luck for one evening Cardell brought along the all-gay cast of this all-gay play.

You may remember that this Terrence McNally play won a Tony award for “Best Play” in 1995. It’s a landmark performance and hopefully everyone in the LGBT community will go experience the production.

The play takes place in an upstate New York home in which eight gay friends spend three holiday weekends together: Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

Gregory, played by Todd Black, is the home-owner going through a mid-life crisis. As a result he questions his work as a choreographer as well as his ability to maintain his relationship with his blind partner Bobby (Chris Silberman).

Preston Lee Britton plays Buzz, the rather stereotypical picture of a New York homosexual. He’s the one with the over-the-top passion for Broadway musicals. Ramón (Keith Rabin, Jr.) is the over confident outsider who finds Bobby irresistible.

Rabin as Ramon is nude in one scene, making it suitable only for mature audiences and irresistible for gay ones.

Charles Wingerter is Perry, the most “straight-acting” member of the group and Arthur’s (Andy Anderson) longtime lover. Perry is also the narrator. While Perry is prone to emotional outbursts, Arthur is more subdued and polite.

“This is a quiet play full of witty comic banter and crackling dialogue,” said director Cardell.  “The audience sort of gets to eavesdrop on the conversations of modern gay men. It’s not a play with huge fireworks. It’s more about the complexities of the gay human experience.”

When asked about the aesthetics and setting of the production, Cardell said “There will be a series of platforms where anything can take place. The script always points out where we are. Sometimes the scenes bleed through each other showing differing points of view. It’s not preachy and I think a lot of heterosexuals may get to experience a new level of reality regarding the interaction of a diverse group of gay friends. These are characters everyone can relate to.”

Cardell said Vintage Theatre chose this particular play because “Craig (Bond) and I talked about the success of Angels In America and wanted to follow it up with another well-known gay play.”

Cardell added that Vintage will be mounting Avenue Q in November. He said that we could look forward to productions of Six Degrees of Separation and The Kiss of the Spider Woman in the near future as well.

Preston Britton, one of the actors in the production, who came out in 1996, said, “My first gay date was to a theatre on Broadway’s Love! Valour! Compassion! And here I am.”

Anderson mentioned that because of the passing of gay marriage in New York, this production proves a “timely play with regard to gay history in America.” DADT was set in motion at the time the play was first created and its repeal just prior to this production provides us with political bookends.
Speaking of his role in the play Keith Rabin, Jr. said, “This is my first serious dramatic piece.” Smiling broadly he added, “I play gay really well.”

‘Love! Valour! Compassion!’ is now playing through Sept. 18 at Vintage Theatre, 2119 E. 17th Ave. For more info. visit www.vintagetheatre.com.