Conversation With a Diva
Things seem to be changing for the better at Bailiwick Repertory, which sponsors a yearly theater festival. In the past I’ve been disappointed by Bailiwick’s focus on generic gay themes and pretty bodies. Though most of the “Pride ’99” programming is boy crazy, the series opened strongly with Larry Kramer’s problematic but worthy play Just Say No, Tim Miller’s Shirts & Skin, and Dr. Shirlene Holmes’s Conversation With a Diva. With Miller and Holmes, there’s a healthy movement away from bland documentation and titillation toward dynamic storytelling as consciousness-raising. It’s a sign of maturity (and maybe aggressive fund-raising) that Bailiwick managed to bring in Miller one weekend with his adrenaline rush of confession, nudity, and grace, and follow him with such a high-quality local work.
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Director Jonathan Wilson probably deserves a lot of credit for Stewart’s persuasiveness. One story moves into the next with naturalistic ease, as if the stories rose out of Damone’s mind without a script behind them. The seamless shifts in mood are virtuosic. Damone’s coy, somehow self-deprecating strutting about the gorgeous men he’s had slips into an intense childhood memory as surprising to the character as it is to the audience. Just as easily, a maudlin moment turns to joyful affirmation. Damone’s life may sometimes feel familiar, but it never feels like a cliche. I loved this story of how one particular man became proud of his manhood in a culture that undermines black men and demoralizes gay people.
