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COUNTERCULTURE
Christianity, Southern Gothic
and Gay Sensibility
by Charlene Ball
"Mr. Universe," Jim Grimsley's award
winning play, is back at Seven Stages,
running in repertory with a new play by
Grimsley, "Belle Ives."
Mr. Universe, back after first seeing
the light of day at Seven Stages, then
going on to win an award in New York, is
a Christian myth in terms of a gay male
sensibility. As such, it has the strengths
and weaknesses of most symbolic drama:
either the symbols work for us or they
don't, and if they do, is the world view
they convey one we can accept?
The premise is that a mute young man
with a well-developed body, wearing a
loincloth and wounded, with blood all
over him, is found and taken home by two
drag queens, street hustlers. One is good
and wants to take care of him; the other is
bad and wants him lustfully.
Vic, the good drag queen, played by
Peter Thomasson, behaves like the classic
Good Samaritan, taking in the man and
tending to his wounds, that keep mysteri
ously reopening. In fact, the audience
sees the muscleman applying red paint to
his body from a bowl throughout the play.
Judy, the bad drag queen, played by
Don Finney, is evil incarnate, with the
face and body of a malevolent cherub.
Brenda Bynum—with a remarkable
accent that I couldn't place, but that I am
told is characteristic of New Orleans—
plays Katy June, a streetwalker with a
heart of tin. And Rebecca Ranson has a
delightful small role as an addled widow
lady who constantly talks to her dead hus
band.
The play works for me only in
THEATRE REVIEW
Mr. Universe; Belle Ives
Thru May 12
Seven Stages Theatre
moments, however. The symbolism
seems heavy-handed and too much insist
ed on. People making the sign of the
cross with knives on their bosoms or
splashing red paint on their torsos did not
move me so much as put me off. And the
characters—Vic is so self-sacrificing that
I want to send him to the nearest Al-Anon
meeting posthaste. While Judy (Judas,
obviously) is only a one-dimensional vil
lain. His tantrums are not theatrical but
merely annoying.
Some of the play's premises are ques
tionable as well. For example, why is
making a sexual pass at God so horrible?
Can't God handle it? Is sexuality so dan
gerous that good people don't dare let God
know they have it? And selflessness may
not always be that good. Christianity has
nurtured a split in the human psyche that
says we can't be good and have what we
desire, and that the physical and sensual
can’t be holy. And so we have people like
Vic who spend their lives serving others
and denying themselves, and who enable
irresponsible monsters like Judy.
Rebecca Ranson, as Juel Laurie,
delighted me the most. She used that
drawly North Carolina voice—not Deep
South, not genteel, but country-slow and
deliberate and working-class and funny
and sad all at once, to create a believable,
non-stereotyped, recognizable character.
In "Belle Ives," a mostly delightful
play, working-class North Carolina meets
Southern Gothic in the late Sixties. This
play's main character, Alberta, played by
Brenda Bynum, does not suffer from any
impulses to be self-sacrificing.
Alberta, a working-class Southern
white woman, deserted by her husband,
with a teen-age son who is growing up too
fast, has the opportunity to go back to
work as a caretaker for crazy, dope-fiend
Miss Belle up at the mansion. But
Alberta is wary of the big house; she
doesn’t like the imperious Ives family—
and their house holds evil secrets.
As Alberta, Brenda Bynum gives a
masterful characterization. Her voice, her
movements, even the bra strap hanging
down over her arm—all are real.
And Bynum gets excellent support
from Theresa O'Shea—two skilled char
acter actresses here—and Rick Rogers—
also recognizable. We who grew up in the
South know such people; they are not
Southern stereotypes; they are our rela
tives. Del Hamilton is pure sleaze as
small-town drug dealer in bell-bottoms
and a Nehru jacket.
The first act is a gem, with its engag
ing Southern characters and dead-accurate
language. I'm telling you the truth, sure
as I'm sitting here. Yes sirree bob.
But the second act is contrived when
Alberta and her teenage son run afoul of
crazy old Miss Belle and her brittle, soul
less daughter, Miss June, both played by
Janet Metzger. Before we're through,
drug addiction, incest, murder, and inte
gration have all been traipsed across the
stage.
Yet these horrors do not cany' as much
impact as one scene that is the heart of the
play for me: Alberta's son has just con
fessed to her that he has gotten a black
girl pregnant. Alberta tells him that he is
Janet Metzger (top), Brenda
Bynum and Theresa O'Shea in Jim
Grimsley's new play "Belle Ives."
not going to slough off his responsibility
to the girl, and also that he does not have
to face this dilemma alone. In that scene,
we get a sense of how a poor woman like
Alberta becomes strong and compassion
ate as she is—through her sense of being
connected to her child and her family and
her community. That is the strength of the
South; that sense of connectedness to
one's place and people.
Jim Grimsley is at his best when he
presents realistic dialogue, believable
characters, and humor. His symbolism,
however, comes across as heavy-handed.
And drag queens and crazy Southern
women have both been used too many
times to symbolize decadence and evil.
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