Two Fringe plays take stock of the homosexual struggle to be free
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Until Martin Sherman's eye-opening play, the Nazi persecution of homosexuals was largely unknown.
"Two Street"
One’s a drama, the other’s a comedy.
One is set in WWII Germany, the other in modern-day South Philly.
One is Martin Sherman’s 1979 hit Bent, and the other is Tribe of Fools’ new play Two Street.
“I have been haunted by this piece,” says Fernando Gonzalez, co-founder of Truth Be Told Productions and director of Bent. “It’s a story that has gone largely untold in the history books.” Until Sherman’s eye-opening play, the Nazi persecution of homosexuals was largely unknown.
In 1930s Berlin, gay marriage was seriously considered until the Nazis squashed it. “Over 80 years have passed,” Gonzalez notes, “and the world is still in the midst of this battle.” Gay playboy Max (Tom Trudgeon) “is just like all of us,” Gonzalez continues, “doing what it takes to get by.” Sent to a concentration camp, Max disguises himself with the yellow Star of David, rather than be marked with the gays’ pink triangle. Last produced in Philadelphia nearly 20 years ago, Bent reveals a particularly dark chapter in gay history.
Two Street continues Tribe of Fools’ series of Philadelphia-specific Fringe creations, following Heavy Metal Dance Fag (2011) and Antihero (2013). Artistic director Terry Brennan spoofs romantic comedies with a Romeo and Juliet story about lovers from rival Mummers brigades — who are both men. Zachary Chiero plays Ronnie, Peter Andrew Danzig is Jules. “I wanted to tweak that one-size-fits-all relationship model and make fun of it, dissect it, and really examine what it says about us as a culture.”
The queer spin, Brennan says, is incidental. “I feel like a natural next step is writing love stories that happen to have gay characters, instead of love stories about the fact that the characters are gay.”
Of course, the brutal treatment suffered by homosexuals in Nazi Germany is quite a contrast with a sequin-splashed romp about gay Mummers. These two plays together show how terribly gays have been treated in recent history, and how we’ve grown, albeit slowly and fitfully, as a culture.
Two Street runs Sept. 4-13, $15-$20, Church of the Crucifixion, 620 S. Eighth St. Bent runs Sept. 11-20, $20, Power Plant, 233 N. Bread St.
