Left – Simon Corfield. Cover – Simon Corfield and Amanda Muggleton. Photos – Greg Doyle{jumi[slides/slide.php][torch_song_0213.php]}
Before there was La Cage Aux Folles (also written by Fierstein), and a decade before Philadelphia and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, there was this Harvey Fierstein’s award winning, landmark play which is considered to be the first play about a gay character to achieve popular and commercial success with a mainstream audience.
It is easy to see why: Fierstein’s funny, wise cracking, yet serious script, has great appeal and balances charm and weight through a main character who is so open about who he is and what he wants that the audience can’t help but warm to him.
The first play, The International Stud (the title comes from a real bar in Greenwich Village in the 1970s, where patrons could avail themselves of anonymous sex in the back bar) opens with a brilliantly witty monologue by the main character, Arnold Beckoff (Simon Corfield), an insecure, chain smoking, gravel voiced, Jewish, New York drag queen, well past his prime. With that familiar brand of New York, self deprecating humour, full of one-liners, that first speech is delivered like a stand up routine.
While his Arnold isn’t the large, imposing and charismatic figure we might expect from the script, Corfield brings a genuine vulnerability and sweetness to the role, making his comedy-coated emotional honesty heartfelt. This central role of Arnold is very demanding, requiring Corfield to deliver a number of rapid fire monologues and be in almost every scene and he carries it off easily.
Arnold meets and falls for Ed who, not wanting to reveal to his family, friends and colleagues that he is gay, leaves Arnold for a woman. Looking like the epitome of heterosexual manliness, Christian Willis is terrific as the straight laced and deeply conflicted Ed.
The second play, Fugue in a Nursery is set a year later and Ed and his girlfriend Laurel (Belinda Wollaston) invite Arnold and his new, very young, model boyfriend, Alan (Thom Jordan), to their upstate place in the country for the weekend. The aim is, in the spirit of self help encounter groups, to resolve old feelings, but instead, it only manages to create more emotional quandaries for all of them.
In the third and most powerful play, Widows and Children First, Ed is bunking on Arnold’s couch, having separated from Laurel. Alan has died tragically, Arnold is caring for his gay, teenage, foster son (Mathew Verevis) and is getting ready for a visit by his mother. When Arnold’s archetypal, kvetching Jewish mother arrives both the comedy and the drama of this final play ramps up. It is clear that Arnold has inherited his mother’s predilection for a witty come-back. Amanda Muggleton is wonderful in her portrayal of the ferocious, recently widowed Mrs Beckoff who faces off against Arnold in a shockingly excoriating, tragic/comic confrontation between a mother and son.
Director, Stephen Colyer’s production reflects his music theatre expertise. He showcases the magnificent voice of Belinda Wollaston, the musical talents of Mathew Verevis and Thom Jordan and the musical direction of Phil Scott. Colyer has made much of the torch songs and makes them central to the production so that they echo the tone of the action. Using some of the most emotive songs from the torch song canon, such as Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do and George Gershwin’s Someone to Watch Over Me, the musical selection was haunting, physically affecting and beautifully performed.
Thirty years on, this revival of Fierstein’s groundbreaking play has stood the test of time to a large degree. The universal themes of the individual’s need for love and respect still resonate. Arnold’s desire to be true to himself and to be accepted for who he is, without shame or the need for justification, is just as real and poignant as it was thirty years ago. Arnold says at one point, “if you want to be part of my life, I’m not editing out the parts you don’t like”.
Although it very much reflects the specific cultural milieu of the period, the issues of who you choose to live with and gay parenting still resonate too. At about the same time I was watching this production, the British parliament was overwhelmingly passing legislation to legalise gay marriage – something that has not yet happened in Australia.
The script can tip over into sentimentality at times and be a little long winded at others, but these are minor complaints about a show that remains both immensely funny, entertaining and moving. Prepare yourselves for a long night though: running at nearly four hours you might want to bring along a cushion to soften the seat.
Gaiety Theatre presents
Torch Song Trilogy
by Harvey Fierstein
Directed by Stephen Colyer
Venue: Darlinghurst Theatre, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point
Previews: 1 – 3 February, 2013
Dates: 6 February – 3 March, 2013
Times: Tuesday – Saturday at 7pm, Sundays at 5pm
Tickets: $40 – $35
Bookings:http://www.darlinghursttheatre.com
