June 2010 Theatre Review by Lawrence Bommer
Fucking Men
There’s not much to learn from--but a lot to like--about “Fucking Men,” an unabashed sexual merry-go-round and the summer/Pride offering from the newly reconstituted Bailiwick Chicago. Written by Tony Award-winning Joe DiPietro (whose musical “Memphis” currently plays Broadway) and based on 19th century Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler’s much imitated “La Ronde,” this ten-scene cavalcade proves perfect proof that the gay world is very much a vertical, not a horizontal, community. Sex, its defining force, cuts through—and connects—every possible socioeconomic class, politics, religion, race, temperament and condition. Sexually active folks (I prefer to call them busybodies) are never more than “ten degrees of separation” apart. As E.M. Forster said (and sometimes did), “Only connect.” Or, as the play ends, with the cast chanting the obvious: “You meet someone else.” In any case it’s all about sex, which the French wisely call “the little death.” But then sex is all about life and even love.
There
are ten entries in this chain letter of passion: That’s the
number of same-sex partners linked in round-robin fashion as one
partner from each scene moves on to make love (or whoopee) with a new
one in the next scene. These recyclers of romance reflect some
very familiar challenges that arise in all relationships, from one
night stands (like most here) to committed connections—crises of
confidence, self-image, trust, fidelity, fantasy: Are you imagining
someone else when you’re getting off on a surrogate body?
Can love be rented by the hour? Does monogamy mean missing out
on the rides of a lifetime? Why do closet cases want to hurt
the one they (just) loved? How does the love that dare not say
its name manage to make so much noise?
The men who fuck and are fucked begin with an escort/hustler (sensuous Arthur Luis Soria) who finds sudden security with a soldier (sturdy Cameron Harms), a fighter who finds forgiveness a lot more enduring a benefit than a blow job. In turn the macho soldier beds a troubled graduate student (charming Armand Fields) who fears he’s alienated the love of his life (offstage, alas). He finds a saving distraction from a cocky, pothead college kid (bumptious Cameron Johnson) who must learn that too much of a good thing is just that. The kid moves on to a married guy (Thad Anzur, complexly conflicted) who returns to his spouse (burly Karmann Bajuyo) to worry whether love can survive the cessation of sex.
Without
immediately disclosing his HIV status, he finds solace with a
kind-hearted porn star (the incredibly gorgeous Christian Kain
Blackburn) who, predictably not uptight about gratification, does not
insist that life imitates art (or, in this case, sex copy
celluloid). This sweet stud gets caught up in the neuroses of a
very insecure playwright (bustling Ryan Lanning) who in turn
threatens to out an Oscar-winning actor (Beau Forbes, whose
resemblance to Tom Cruise is purely coincidental) who then decides to
come out to a TV journalist (Norm Woodel), thereby ending his film
career. Some things refuse to change from Schnitzler’s era
to ours.
Many of the revelations in this sexual tragicomedy are either glib or clichéd and, human nature being what it is, inevitably not very original or different from Schnitzler’s enduring inventory. Shakespeare, as usual, said it best: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” That applies equally to brief sex and paid nookie.
What redeems this 80-minute venture is the sincerity of Director Tom Mullen’s cast, 10 actors who, in a play this insistent, will clearly never need to wonder about their motivation. More than a depiction of serial promiscuity, “Fucking Men” is also more than its too generic title (which, depending on how you read it, could be both a gerund noun and an epithet). It offers a cross-section of a community that’s inevitably linked by more than sex because fornication is never as simple as it’s short. And did I mention that Christian Kain Blackburn is very good looking, as in “worth the price of admission” handsome?
"Fucking Men" continues through August 29, 2010 at Theatre Building Chicago (now known as Stage 773), located at 1225 W. Belmont. Performances are Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7 and 9 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. There is no performance Sunday, July 4. General admission tickets are $25. Special Reserved seating is available for $30. To purchase tickets, call the Theater Building Chicago / Stage 773 box office at 773-327-5252, or go to www.ticketmaster.com. Bailiwick Chicago has launched a dedicated web site for the production with photos, videos, and additional information about the show at www.FMenChicago.com. For more information on this show, please visit the Theatre In Chicago Fucking Men page.
About Lawrence Bommer
A
native Chicagoan, Lawrence Bommer has been an active free-lance
writer and playwright since 1975. For twenty years he wrote a
weekly column, "Opening Nights" for the Friday section of
the Chicago Tribune, where he also regularly contributed theater
criticism and feature writing. His work has appeared in
Stagebill, the Pulitzer-Lerner newspapers and The Advocate.
Mr. Bommer was theater editor for the Windy City Times since its founding until 1999; from 1986 a theater critic for the Chicago Reader (where he has also written for the "Calendar" and "Our Town" sections); Chicago Free Press, where he was contributing editor until the paper’s demise in spring 2010; Chicago Footlights, where he has been a regular contributor; and Plays International, where he is the Chicago correspondent. He has also contributed to the Hollywood Reporter, PerformInk, Screen Magazine, CitySearch, the Chicago Illini, Inside Chicago, Illinois Entertainer, the International Theatre Festival of Chicago newsletter, Plays International, CitySearch, Playbill Online, TheatreMania, CurtainUp.com and Chicago Enterprise. Mr. Bommer is a three-time finalist for a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in the "arts criticism" category. In 1991 he became a regular theater and, dance critic and arts writer for the Chicago Tribune. His commentary has also aired on LesBiGay Radio, WGN and on Milwaukee Public Radio.
As a playwright, Mr. Bommer's work has been produced in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Madison and, in Chicago, by the Organic Theater Company (Jonathan Wild [1979], Poe [1980]. Gulliver's Last Travels [1993] and by Lionheart Gay Theatre (Gunsel, The Tyrannicides, Killers and Comrades). Since 1976 Mr. Bommer has taught at the Francis W. Parker School and was a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1969 to 1975 (where he received his Master's degree in English), as well as a guest lecturer at the College of DuPage, Roosevelt University, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. Mr. Bommer is a member of the American Theater Critics Association and has been a member of the National Writers Union and the Dramatists Guild.