What’s Wrong With Angry?
Patrick Wilde’s 1992 period dramady about a sixteen-year-old British lad coming to grips with his homosexuality and the difficulties he has with school friends and family has been given an solid, if unexciting, production at the LGBT theatre, CELEBRATION.
As the play progressed, I had the niggling sensation that I’d seen this one before, but not on stage. Later, I realized that it was marvelously filmed by Simon Shore in 1999 as GET REAL, also from the U.K. Here, under Michael Matthews’ professional direction, the large cast of ten (with an alternate cast who will perform all Wednesdays in October), despite some distracting accents, make us care about Steven Carter (superbly realized by Daniel Taylor) and his on-again-off-again sexual relationship with fellow-schoolmate John Westhead (Miles Heymann who needs seasoning as an actor) and his close friendship with “fag-hag” Linda (Kelly Schumann in an audience-pleasing comedic turn); naturally, Steven himself is a “hag-fag,” just to be fair.
But the pressures of school and a continuing homophobic feel in the U.K., under which teachers who might be able to help with the on-going bullying are forbidden by law to do so, leading the intelligent Steven to a possible fatal ending. Now, part of the strength of this play is that we don’t know until the very end which path he has turned towards.
The excellent costume design of Miguel Montalvo, unit set-design of the ever-reliable Kurt Boetcher, and the subtle use of lighting (well-designed by Michael Brian Denman) works wondrously on Celebration’s small stage. Director Matthews and the producers have given us a rich, if now fortunately dated, production. The ensemble (Melinda Augustina, Rick Cosnett, Kevin Fabian, Todd Gaebe, Matthew Henerson, Al Jones, and Susane E. Lee) all bring reality to what they are doing and the show is frequently funny, as well as agreeably serious.
At Celebration Theatre, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm, closing October 29th. 7051 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038. 323.957.1884 or www.celebrationtheatre.com for tickets.