Still poignant after all these years, Set in 1991, Terrence McNally play surprises with attitudes and prejudices that are alive today
by Jeanie Forte – Palo Alto Weekly
The Dragon Theatre in downtown Palo Alto is also the frequent home of theatre Q, which is currently taking us down memory lane with a play by Terrence McNally set in 1991. One of his most affecting plays, capturing the angst of the times with charm and humor, “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” proves all too relevant for us in 2009.
The play focuses on two mid-life couples spending the Fourth of July at a beach house on Fire Island, because one of the wives inherited the house from her recently deceased brother. Although both couples are heterosexual, gay neighbors live on either side, and the brother’s death from AIDS haunts them. In bits of dialogue and asides to the audience, we hear of their various fears and prejudices regarding homosexuality, including their dread of the swimming pool as a possible AIDS transmitter.
Sally (Meredith Hagedorn), the sister and heir, tries to paint and broods about her brother’s death, while dealing with a series of miscarriages and her newest, secret pregnancy. Her husband, Sam (Jeffrey Hoffman), is the most glaringly “middle class” of the lot, a hard-working contractor with stereotypical class and homophobic prejudices who nevertheless wins our sympathies with his fears of losing his wife to a love affair.
They’re joined by Sam’s sister, Chloe (Mary Lou Torre), a perky upper-middle-class housewife with three children who likes to perform in community-theater musicals and whose relentless enthusiasm stands in marked contrast to the melancholy around her. Her husband, John (Dale Albright), bares his contempt for his wife’s hyperactivity, but later reveals a more tender regard for her. His gruff aloofness hides his own fear as he faces cancer, and his desire for continuing a covert relationship with Sally.
All of this is illuminated in the first few scenes of the play, so I’m not giving away major plot turns. What we learn about each of the characters in the opening scenes and monologues prepares the canvas for a day’s worth of arguing, jockeying, worrying, cajoling and even fisticuffs. Along the way we become more sympathetic to each character, seeing their frailty and vulnerability as well as their attempts to deal with fear and loss.
McNally brings home relevance without hitting us too hard on the head with it, and does so with heart and liberal doses of humor. The play feels somewhat historical in nature, a glimpse back to the AIDS panic of the late ’80s and early ’90s, but surprises with attitudes and prejudices that are alive and well today.
When Sam expresses his distaste for gays and their lifestyles, he could just as easily be speaking in 2009 as 1991. He experiences an epiphany of sorts that begins to alter his perception of gays — would that it were that simple. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on McNally’s part, or an attempt to raise consciousness in his audience, although it feels like preaching to the choir, given the unlikelihood that someone with deep anti-gay prejudice would find their way into this audience.
Still, McNally represents a broad spectrum of belief and prejudice with his small cast of four, inviting us to examine our own hearts for stereotypes we may harbor. The play bogs down somewhat in Act Three, suddenly introducing new issues and problems that won’t be resolved or even explored, and feels like it has a hard time finding its conclusion, but the theatre Q production is redeemed by superb acting.
A small cast requires four strong actors, and thankfully there is no weak link in this one. Torre threatens to drive us crazy with Chloe’s chirpiness, appropriately as the character is written, but later tugs at our heartstrings with just the right measure of wistfulness and an iron core of strength when needed. Albright feigns boredom and intellectual malaise in beautiful counterpoint to his fear of his cancer and a desperate reach for life.
Hagedorn does a lovely turn as Sally, arguably the protagonist of the play, who moves from anxiety and immobility to a kind of bravado in the face of death, a railing against anonymity and numbness. Hoffman, as her hapless husband, manages to capture a clear type and yet show us a real person under it, breathing real life into what otherwise could be a caricature.
Ron Gasparinetti’s set evokes the tony digs of Fire Island in the small space of the Dragon, including a small pool that proves necessary to some of the action. The box-office attendant warns that the first row may experience some splashing, but that didn’t happen on opening night.
“Lips together, teeth apart” is the litany Sam is taught by his dentist to prevent teeth-grinding, but it begs to be read as metaphor. Keeping silent with secrets? Or perhaps the preparation for a kiss, as in “Make love, not war”? However you choose to interpret it, you’ll appreciate the fine acting and thoughtful script in this not-so-dated play.
What: “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” by Terrence McNally, presented by theatre Q
Where: Dragon Theatre, 535 Alma St., Palo Alto
When: Through June 28 with 8 p.m. shows Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays
Cost: Tickets are $20 general and $15 for seniors, youth and Theatre Bay Area members.
Info: Go to www.theatreq.org or call 415-433-1235.
