The Temperamentals
At PAL Studio until December 3
604-684-2787/www.ticketstonight.ca
The Temperamentals, written by American playwright John Marans in 2009, set me googling. Not only did I not know that "temperamental" was a euphemism for homosexual, but I had also never heard of Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society that Hay and his lover Rudi Gernreich founded in 1950 in Los Angeles for the protection and improvement of homosexuals.
The '50s were also the McCarthy years and Hay was not only a homosexual, he was also a communist. Recruiting members for the underground Mattachine Society, therefore, became difficult because of Hay's well-known political views. Even Gernreich, a highly successful Hollywood costume and clothing designer, did not lend his name to the society but was always referred to simply as "R."
Hay was caught in a double-bind: his homosexuality was a detriment to the U.S. Communist Party and his communism put the Mattachine Society at risk. Consequently, Hay stepped down in 1953 as a founding member of the Society that, at one point, had 2,000 members. It folded in 1961.
Ryan Mooney, who has had huge success directing musicals (including Sweeney Todd and Rent) and as a performer in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, directs The Temperamentals for his company, Fighting Chance Productions. Without having read the play, I think Mooney made some unfortunate choices - especially in Act 1. Hay's is an important story in the continuing struggle for equal rights for gays, bisexuals, lesbians and transgendered and it doesn't serve Marans' play well to play it for laughs. Perhaps Mooney is not to blame for the giggles that coy looks, fey gestures and limp wrists elicited on opening night. It's also unlikely that his actors-James Gill, Brian Hinson (as Harry), Rob Monk, David Nicks and Devin Pihlainen (Rudi)- think that kind of clich-ridden performance will convince us of the characters' homosexuality. It doesn't. What it does do is make very ambiguous the tone of the play. Comedy? Drama? Documentary? It's all over the place.
My note at the beginning of Act 2 reads, "What the ?" Marans throws in a fantasy sequence with all the performers in various states of drag. They represent some of the women in the lives of these men. It's theatrical but crazy; we don't for quite a while even know who they are supposed to be. James Gill, in pearl earrings and a little flowered hat, is something to behold, however.
After that, The Temperamentals settles down into the real nitty gritty of the society's struggle. A real breakthrough in the gay rights movement came when Dale Jennings, one of the members, was entrapped by a cop and charged with vagrancy and lewd behaviour-neither of which was true. At that time, gay men usually pleaded guilty to such charges but Jennings was persuaded by the members to plead not guilty and go to trial. The jury was deadlocked and the trial was seen as a victory for the Mattachines. Following that, membership and financial support flooded in.
Hinson makes a strong, passionate Harry and, in a floral dirndl and little hat at the end of the play, he looks very like Hay in his later years. Handsome, young Pihlainen plays Rudi a bit too coquettishly for my taste but then Rudi is in "the biz" and could be expected to be theatrical. Monk, Nicks and Gill tackle a variety of roles with varying degrees of success. Gill is best as film director Vincente Minnelli who, although sympathetic, warns Hay and his cohorts of the potentially disastrous fallout from coming out.
Perhaps this production will settle down and subsequent audiences will not be so inclined to laugh. There's a fascinating story here just waiting to come out.
