Review - iHo

I am taking a break to write a quick review of Tony Kushner’s new piece at the Public (presented in co-production with Signature Theatre), “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guild to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.”  Whew.  A mouthful.  As is the play.  J

First, thanks to my friend who gave me the ticket—I would surely have missed the play otherwise.  And I am very glad I saw it.  At three hours, forty minutes, there is a lot going on here.  As you all may remember, I like a lot going on.  Big messy plays that are smart and interesting are definitely my cup of tea.  However.  Here, I was never bored and found much of the dialogue and characterization to be very intellectually stimulating and real.  But I was never really engaged.  I found myself thinking outside the play—‘would a former longshoreman really use the word ‘assiduously’ in a conversation with his contractor son?’ , ‘does it make me a bad person that I have NO idea who these labor leaders are/were?’ and so on.  I was distracting myself instead of luxuriating in the piece, and I think part of the problem lies with Kushner.

There are subplots here that could be tightened—I never saw the hustler as anything but a device that is needed for the last scene (and the overly technical actor-y performance didn’t really help me), the ex-husband only seems to be needed for a fantastic second-act closing line (his other big revelation is nearly totally dismissed).

The acting was very good, but sometimes they were hamstrung by the writing.  It just seemed, in places, that characters were quoting Kushner instead of saying dialogue.  Does that even make sense?  K. Todd Freeman fell into this trap a lot.  I read one review that called him a ‘speechifying martyr.’  That describes him pretty well.   A lot of Kushner’s dialogue just didn’t fit into his mouth.  Michael Cristofer was wonderfully eloquent as the father who wants to bid his children goodbye, but perhaps he was a little too eloquent.  I generally enjoy Stephen Spinella, but I just don’t get where his character was coming from.  Stephen Pasquale was very good as the younger brother and has a terrific last scene, and Linda Emond is gorgeously understated, as always.

I guess part of the problem was I just didn’t connect to these people—this family is so super-smart, I wonder how they even live with themselves.  Since I have little to no knowledge of labor unions, or labor laws, or even more than a scant understanding of socialism or communism, lots of the ideas went completely over my head.  Not that that is necessarily a problem for me—after I saw “Copenhagen,” I went out and bought books to help illuminate the plot even more, because I found it so evocative.  I didn’t find anything evocative here.  I guess there were a lot of things I didn’t understand—why are these lesbians sleeping with men?  This house is worth $4 million?  Why is everyone so enamored of this hustler??  No clue.  Sometimes, it seemed as if Kushner is throwing a ton of ideas up against the wall to see if any of them stick.

Having said all that, I will repeat, I wasn’t bored and I enjoyed the humor and family dynamics.  There are scenes where everyone is talking and arguing at once and it is familiar and fun and genuine.  I guess I learned something, and because it’s Kushner, there is some gorgeously rapturous language that was well-worth hearing.  I don’t think this is a play I’ll need to see again, but I am glad I saw it once.