Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN VOICE
SEPTEMBER 23/1993
Body Politic’s power games produce thoughtful anger
Atlanta playwright Steve Murray has a concern he likes to
joke about. His new work, “Body Politic,” is opening at 7
Stages this week, and it is certainly thought provoking. “I’m
just hoping no one in the audience goes into a blind rage and
attacks me with an umbrella in the lobby,” he says. “If that
doesn’t happen, I’ll be happy.”
Certainly the possibility exists. “Body Politic” consists of
two one-act plays, “Gloaming,”
which addresses the question of out
ing, and “Material,” which delves
into stalking, fiction stealing from
real life and life imitating art. The
play was honed in recent workshops
at Theater Emory.
“Gloaming” is about the success
ful alumnus of a boy’s prep school
who is now thirtysomething. He goes
back to his alma mater to make a
speech and meets up with his old
teacher, a man on whom he had a
crush. In the course of the play, the out young man confronts
his former mentor. “But it’s not really an outing play,” says
Murray. “It’s my response to the question of outing. It’s more
about who has the power to proclaim who you are. Is that a
personal power, or does someone else have the authority to
announce that? It’s decidedly much about ambiguity.”
“Gloaming,” according to Murray, “is a pissant word
meaning twilight. There’s a reason it’s pedantic. Gloaming
turns out to not only be the time of day the action takes place,
but it’s also the name of a book that becomes relevant. It’s just
sort of a self-referential thing.”
“Material” explores two years in the lives of a theater
director, his lover, who happens to be an actress, and the
director’s former student, who was an actor and is now trying
Body Politic
runs through
Oct. 9 at
7 Stages Back
Door Theatre,
1105 Euclid
Avenue, in
Inman Park.
Call 523-7647
for information.
Director Vincent Murphy (left) and playwright Steve
Murray bring “Body Politic” to the stage.
his hand at being a playwright. He has written his first play, a
two-character piece —based on a true event—about a woman
who was stalked, raped, and then killed by her own lover. He
presents this play fictionalizing that event. The three decide to
develop the script with the director directing, his lover playing
the woman and the writer/actor playing the man. Murray feels
this script represents “the cannibalism of not only fiction
cannibalizing reality, but also relationships cannibalizing re
lationships.”
The two one-act plays were meant to be presented to
gether. They both use the same basic set, as well as the same
set of performers, Theater Emory actors Tim McDonough
and Janice Akers (who happen to be married to each other in
real life), and Atlanta actor Brad Sherrill. “Body Politic” was
developed and directed by Theater Emory’s artistic producing
director Vincent Murphy.
“Thematically, these plays arc very much linked,” says
Murray. “I would say they are both about sexual power and
power games, gay and straight and somewhere in between. I
went through two umbrella titles before I came up with ‘Body
Politic.’ The first was ‘Sex Acts,’ because they are two one-
act plays about sex games. But that was considered to be
possibly a little too salacious to be doing at a university — and
rightly so, because I think people would have gone in with the
wrong expectations. The other title I had was ‘The World of
Men,’ but Vinny’s daughter thought it sounded like it took
place in a gay bathhouse.
“I am more interested in the themes of these plays than in
the actual plots. I’m very interested in what the response to
these plays will be. I can see people being very angry at these
plays, from straight to gay to male to female. I hope they don’t
get angry at me, but rather at the situation these characters
find themselves in.
“I’m quite interested in these characters. I wouldn’t neces
sarily want to have dinner with them, though.”
Previously, the 30-year-old Murray has written “Menu in
the Window” at the Academy Lab Theater in 1985 and “Hun
gry to Bed” at Actor’s Express in 1991. He was the project
playwright for Vincent Murphy’s ‘The Van Gogh Gallery” at
Theater Emory in 1991. He is currently a staff writer in the
features department for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He
mostly covers the film beat, doing reviews, previews, inter
views and trend stories. He is quite “out” at work. “In fact,” he
says, “I’m the features department queer. I’m about as out as I
can be.”
MICHAEL KAPE
Most People Think a
Good Home Security
System Costs Over
$1000.
Most People Are Wrong.
Security
Systems
Affordable Protection-
for Your Valuables
297-6220
WARD'S
NURSERY
4961 Peachtree Industrial
Chamblee, GA 30341
Phone 458-3224
TITAN
Turf Type Fescue
$28 95
FREE, personalized lawn
care schedule with the
purchase of any
lawn products
Mention SoVo
and get 20%
off any
shrubs
in stock.
heartland
Yard Barn Agent
i Ij \
_ rsi/in/^
■
vwy j
■ \ w/ .' . Y * ■
IASS CM f/
■
A i a t ■! i
N
’A r
■tJR
PORT I
I ALA
ISE MORN
:.k civic:
TC
;um
•I V I N I.;sr '
J IMIG
1 11
I
S / ? ? ' H
AN5LEY T
„ •
MU
2 A
' ' '
i l
ANSLEY MALL
M-F I0»9, Sat 9:30*9, Sun
A Mil04 A T 11 IX A I A A A II i T A TI / I Mi :