 |
| Scott McKay, Robert Drivas, Ruth Ford. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
A BREEZE FROM THE
GULF
[Drama/Alcoholism/Drugs/Family/Homosexuality/Mental Illness/Religion/Southern]
A: Mart Crowley; D: John Going; S: Douglas W. Schmidt; C: Stanley Simmons; L:
Ken Billington; P: Charles Hollerity, Jr., and Barnard S. Straus; T: Eastside
Playhouse (OB); 10/15/73-11/25/73 (48)
Mart
Crowley followed up his groundbreaking hit about a group of gay male friends, The Boys in the Band, with this
anguished, semi-autobiographical journey through 15 years Michael Connelly’s
(Robert Drivas) love-hate relationship with his alcoholic father, Teddy (Scott McKay), and drug-addicted mother, Lorraine (Ruth Ford), as pictured in an Irish-Catholic family
living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Booze
eventually kills the deeply religious father, once the proud proprietor of a
saloon-pool hall, and the insane asylum claims the suffering mother. The
latently homosexual young man comes to terms with his parents’ struggles as he
ages in the play from 15 to 30. In the course of the drama, there are many acrimonious
conflicts, fights that fiercely rage despite the love of the combatants for one
another.
Crowley’s
strongest features were his ability to write stingingly accurate dialogue and
to provide fuel for white-hot performances. However, his play lacked
conciseness, focus, and a sense of ever-increasing tension. Clive Barnes
thought the work “diffuse” and in need of cutting, while Walter Kerr thought it
had no “shape.” He wrote that it was burdened with “structural monotony.” The
lack of necessary expository background about the forces driving the parents to
drink and drugs was cited by John Simon, as was the scarcity of “soaring stage
images” in the language. Still, Simon found himself caught up in the maelstrom
of emotion.
A
potent factor was the distinguished acting of the three-member cast, commended
by most for its accurate, moving, and honest depiction of the tortured Connolly
household. Ruth Ford, in particular, was exceptional. Simon thought her better
than he had ever seen her: “often she sits upon the exact mid-point between
lovableness and absurdity, between sick grotesquerie and humble common sense.”
Previous entries:
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
