by Christina Collins, 3/10/10
I am really, really done with plays and movies and books about gay people being victimized. I am, you guys. Seriously.
Diana Son’s Stop Kiss, recently presented by Prodigal Sun Productions, has the homophobia-motivated beating of two young women (one of them into critical condition) as a major plot point. Even though I’ve read the play, even though I was pretty sure of the production’s pedigree, I had to think really hard about whether or not I was interested in seeing that particular situation represented again.
Happily, one of the things I’d forgotten about Son’s script is that while the beating of Callie and Sara (the one who ends up in the ICU) is the central action of the story, it’s not the central focus.
Instead, the play is about falling in love, and experiencing the thrill of something new, and of the ways courage and strength manifest themselves. It was also a top-drawer production; there were a couple bits of dissonance but they were mostly unavoidable, and not especially detrimental to the show overall.
The cast was tremendous. Raychel Wagner and Katie Driscoll as Callie and Sara had the kind of chemistry that made me jealous, not simply as an actor watching other actors do good work, but as a person. I remember the nervousness and excitement of falling for someone and Wagner and Driscoll made me want it all over again.
One of director Elizabeth Lord’s strongest choices was to downplay the “OMG ladeez” angle, and present the developing attraction between risk-averse city girl Callie and boisterous Midwestern transplant Sara as something exciting for what it is: falling in love. The audience is shocked at the violence against them not only because it’s a hate crime, but because it’s Sara and Callie, and we care about them, and their relationship, because that relationship is exciting and awkward and real.
My only complaint was the unhappy marriage of the small playing space in the Midnight Sun with the fluid, ever-changing settings of the script. There were a lot of blackouts and scene changes, which caused a bit of a lurching pace at the top of the show. I imagine a larger stage would have alleviated some of the problems, but would also have decreased the intimacy. As presented it was a trade-off I was completely satisfied to embrace. I’m lucky to have seen it. ◙
For more information on future shows by Prodigal Sun Productions, visit www.prodigalsunproductions.org.