[NEohioPAL] Review of Ensemble Theatre's "The Normal Heart"

[Bob Abelman]

Ensemble's 'The Normal Heart' a passionate PSA 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Times on 10/4/12

 

Premiering at New York's Public Theater in 1985 amidst the initial outburst of HIV-AIDS, gay activist and playwright Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" was a force to be reckoned with.

 

Autobiographical and taking no prisoners, the play indicted an apathetic government, chastised an inactive press too cowardly to cover the crisis, and condemned a medical community too slow to respond.  It also called out gay citizens and activists too divided to be a community, too closeted to raise a collective voice, and too promiscuous to deter their own demise.   

 

This was a play about futility-a confrontational, desperate cry for help in the darkness-that was never meant to be a subtle work or a great work of art.  In fact, Kramer's playwriting skills and theatrical sensibilities were not nearly as evolved as his conscience, passion and frustration.  The play was meant to get your attention. 

 

It still does.  Revived on Broadway in 2011 and currently on stage at the Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights, "The Normal Heart" is still a disturbing work and, because the plague has not gone away, the play's rhetoric continues to bite.  As a now-historical marker of a medical problem in its infancy and a sociopolitical movement at its birth, its poignancy is immediate and penetrating.

 

"The Normal Heart" is also about as entertaining as a public service announcement.  

 

Speeches fill the script.  Most of the dialogue is utilitarian, serving to advance a talking point rather than progress a storyline.  When attention is paid to storytelling-such as the play-ending wedding-on-a-deathbed scene-it feels as if emotional buttons are being pushed with an oversized whack-a-mole sledgehammer.    

 

There are, however, intriguing aspects of this play that were undermined in the urgency of its original telling that now rise to the surface in this Ensemble Theatre production.  One is the playwright's revealing disclosure of his own failings as an activist, a card-carrying homosexual, and a human being.  

 

Brian Zoldessy, as Kramer's surrogate mouthpiece Ned Weeks-brings this to the forefront with clarity and through a marvelous combination of awkward self-consciousness, writhing vulnerability, and hard-driving intent.  He is wonderful, and needs to be, for Ned is the glue that binds the play's pieces and parts and allows it to resemble a coordinated narrative. 

 

The show's speeches, which on the page read like political pamphlets and the information sheets stuffed into the Ensemble Theater playbill, pop on the stage. This is due to the stellar performances by a very talented company.  

 

Dan Kilbane as Mickey Marcus-Ned's friend and fellow founding member of the Gay Men's Health Crisis activist group-delivers his second act rant with such helpless rage that audience members fight the urge to reach out to him for support.  David Bugher as Bruce Niles-the group's elected leader and a closeted businessman-offers a heart-wrenching recognition of the epidemic's toll on his life and on the gay community.  As Emma Brookner, an early AIDS physician, Derdriu Ring is riveting throughout the production but particularly during her tirade that lambasts the medical community for non-response to the disease.

 

Director Sarah May nicely balances these epic orations with more subtle presentations by the other players, who show remarkable restrain and a genuine understanding of this play and their part in it.  

 

They include Scott Esposito as Ned's lover and first love, Jeffrey Grover as Ned's brother, and Jeremy Jenkins as a charming Southern activist and provider of the play's few light moments.  Richard Worswick and Benjamin Gregg serve in a variety of roles, which is always a bit disconcerting in professional productions and is downright disturbing in this play since they reappear on stage after playing someone who has just died from AIDS.   

 

Set designer Ian Hinz captures the simplicity of the original and revival productions, with their multiple entrance ways between three white walls and a few pieces of furniture creating a sense of location.  However, rather than having words and names of victims inscribed in relief, three mounted flat-screens-technology not in existence when this play takes place-serve that function with significantly less dramatic effect.  

 

"The Normal Heart" is propaganda art, of that there is no doubt, and Kramer is most certainly a man on a mission.  But, over 25 years later, he has proven himself to be somewhat of a prophet as well as a playwright.  Our nation's apathy toward AIDS still rules the day.

 

"The Normal Heart" continues through October 21 at the Ensemble Theatre.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $20, call 216-321-2930 or visit www.ensemble-theatre.org.
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