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Can science tell us more than we should know?
“Twilight of the Golds” explores
couple’s struggle after they learn that
their tinhorn son will probably he gay
When Jonathan Tolins wrote "The Twilight of the Golds,”
which will soon open on Broadway after runs in Washington and
San Francisco, the plot was pure science-fiction—a supposcdly-
libcral couple learns from genetic testing that their unborn son
will probably be gay, touching off an ethical struggle over whether
to abort the fetus.
Now, of course, with the recent research on a “gay gene,”
what was science fiction has become topical. Call it the “China
Syndrome” syndrome, if you will, named for the nuclear melt
down movie that just happened to coincide with the Three-Mile
Island incident.
“Twilight” raises fascinating questions that may not be an
swered in our lifetime. The fact that Tolins is queer may make
his answers more to our liking than those of someone else—a
preemptive strike.
The play centers around a gay man, David Gold (Raphael
Sbarge), the uncle of the unborn child. David introduces us to his
mother (Judith Scarpone), father (David Groh), sister Suzanne
(Jennifer Grey) and her husband Rob (Michael Spound).
An opera queen on staff at the Met, David sees life in terms
of opera and parallels his family saga with a running synopsis of
Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
“In Wagner,” David says, “The gods determine the fate of
the world...through domestic squabbles and conversations.” So
do the Golds. The first act is mostly comic, in a very New York-
Jewish (and, thanks to David, gay) way.
The almost incestuously close family gathers to celebrate
Suzanne and Rob’s third anniversary. David may be overly
sensitive, but his mother does tell him he’s too thin more than
once before he complains that “I can’t wait for the day when I
can lose a few pounds or catch a cold without everyone planning
what to read at the memorial.” He and his sister should start a
Children of Jewish Parents support group.
Rob, who works in biotechnology, announces that his com-
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A gay man, David Gold (Raphael Sbarge), implores his
sister Suzanne (Jennifer Grey) not to abort her unborn
child after she learns the child will be gay.
pany has made a breakthrough that will let pregnant women
learn their unborn child’s genetic makeup at the end of the first
trimester. Rob speaks positively of being alerted in advance to
genetically transmitted diseases, but David sees only red flags
and warns of a “blatant Nazi philosophy” that will allow only
perfect children to be born.
“Knowledge is neutral," Rob argues. “It’s what bad people
do with that knowledge” that causes problems. Mom. who has a
childlike faith dial most people will do the righL thing most of the
lime, notes she's already heard talk in the beauty parlor about
women having abortions because their children would have been
female.
When die discussion gets hot and heavy, Suzanne blurts out
that she’s pregnant. Rob arranges for her to be the first to have a
genetic screening. When she balks, he says, "It's just informa
tion.”
But who is ready for this kind of information? The play’s
most shocking moment comes as this educated, liberal couple
grapples with the results of the lest—“It’s a boy. No physical
deformities, Quite intelligent, probably left-handed. It will prob
ably be like David."
Suzanne asks if they might not control dicir child’s environ
ment to make him grow up straight, and Rob replies, “We’d have
a lot of nature to nurture against.”
“We could get rid of it,” his wife suggests. When reminded
that there is no precedent for such a decision, she says, “1 f only it
were deformed it wouldn’t be so complicated.”
The second act of “Twilight” is largely serious, as David
lobbies for Suzanne to keep her baby. Most of her rationaliza
tions for aborting the child center on sparing him suffering. But
then, who gets through life without suffering?
Can you be pro-choice but limit a woman’s reasons for
making her choice? And when genetic mutation is viable, would
you reverse the orientation of a gay gene? Would you want your
children to be gay, given a choice? Those are questions the
audience will be arguing all the way home.
“The Twilight of the Golds” isn’t perfect, but it’s witty,
intelligent, entertaining and dramatically satisfying. Effectively
directed by Arvin Brown, it is excellently acted, with top honors
to Judith Scarpone as a Jewish mother whose humanity tran
scends the stereotype when it counts. It’s also the best play for
opera queens since “The Lisbon Traviata.”
The bottom line is that “Twilight” may help prepare other
families for a private decision they may have to make sooner
than any of us think.
STEVE WARREN
For the simple things in life...
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