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Peer Reviews
Stop Kiss Written by Diana Son Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2008 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved.
Last weekend was my first time seeing a Pandora Production, and I hope it won't be my last. Pandora's revival of Diana Son's Stop Kiss is an excellent production, and it would have been so even by itself. But that wasn't enough for them. They have come up with the brilliant idea of mounting Stop Kiss in repertory with their already-running Laramie Project. Both take place at about the same time, in different parts of the country, and feature a brutal hate crime as an important event. The gay bashing of Stop Kiss is fictional; the one in Laramie, tragically, is not. However, by juxtaposing these two very different stories in very different settings, producer/director Michael J. Drury and his team have commemorated the ten-year anniversary of Matthew Shepherd's murder – and the landmark debate over hate crimes legislation it inspired – in the most honorable and fitting way possible, by sending us a painful reminder that hate crimes can happen anywhere, whether in a small and relatively conservative town like Laramie, Wyoming, or in one of the most enlightened and cosmopolitan cities in the world, New York City. There are two acts in Stop Kiss, and no, I'm not talking about the ones that bookend the intermission. The two acts in question are the events before and after the brutal attack that takes place offstage and subsequently upends the lives of our two reluctant heroines. Both stories happen more or less simultaneously, both progressing forward in time, and to call either act a flashback (or a flash-forward, for that matter) would be to oversimplify the structure. I rather liked the way Son plays with time; others might find it confusing. You be the judge. It would also be oversimplification to say that Stop Kiss is even about the gay-bashing in the same way that Laramie is. This play is more about the two women victimized by the crime. They couldn't be more different if their names were literally Oscar and Felix. Callie is a veteran New Yorker becoming more and more stuck in a routine she doesn't really like, but she tolerates it anyway. She is bored by her job as a radio traffic reporter, but can't imagine leaving it. She still hangs out with the same tight-knit circle of friends from her college years, even though she suspects they are all beginning to outgrow one another. She lives by herself in a Manhattan apartment that's sloppy but just the way she likes it. At exactly 6 p.m. every night, without fail, she is bombarded with loud stomping noises from the apartment directly above hers, and rather than complain to the inconsiderate upstairs neighbor ... she decides to screw it and plans her day around this hour. Enter Sara, who somehow manages to be the organized one of the pair and remain a free spirit. Sara is following her passion for teaching third graders by uprooting herself from a too-easy job at a St. Louis private school and competing for a fellowship at a school for remedial students in the Bronx. Eventually she'd like to travel to Australia and Asia, but basically she's just drifting through her life as aimlessly as Callie. The two women do not know each other, but Callie agrees to help Sara find her way around NYC because she is a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend or something like that. In the process, Sara inadvertently helps Callie find her way around in life. Callie learns, slowly but surely, to change, to let people in, and to ultimately answer the question Sara keeps asking her: "What do you want?" If you think by now you know the direction that this story goes, well, you'd still be only partly right. Stop Kiss is one of those plays that overcome some familiar elements in the script by using the "not-what-you-say-but-how-you-say-it" philosophy (the conversations are extremely well-written and well-acted), and by refusing to oversimplify its characters. Callie and Sara aren't even really lesbians. In fact, they're both in on-again-off-again relationships with less-than-reliable guys. The first act of this story (again, I am not referring to the hour or so that precedes intermission) allows us the chance to see them meet, become friends, discover and question their newfound attraction for each other, leading up to the all-important first kiss that divides the two stages of their lives. The second act finds them recovering, in their own ways, from the attack. One of them lies comatose in the hospital, while the other deals with the unwelcome reaction of the public to her newfound sexuality. In one of the play's most interesting plot points, even the chief witness to the crime becomes more interested in the victims as lesbians than as people. Notice, also, how the policeman investigating the crime becomes so much less amiable after discovering that the two victims were attacked while kissing. Our heroines are surrounded by people who are so fixated by the label that they miss the individuals. The play itself makes no such judgments. Stop Kiss is not content to be a mere police procedural or a statement on equality. At its heart, it is a character study of two strangers who become close with each other as Callie shows Sara the ropes of being a New Yorker, and Sara teaches Callie something more important. I love the symbolism of Callie babysitting Sara's cat, Caesar; when Sara drops him off, she advises Callie, "it takes him a while to come out." Well, Caesar never really does come out of his shell, but Callie, after a long while, finally does. It's about the importance of knowing what one wants. Both women drift through life in their own ways. Callie has a wonderful monologue that nicely sums up the lack of drive in her life, and whenever she has plans to go somewhere, either with Sara or with George, the bartender and fine-dining connoisseur who is her long-time friend and confidante, she has a habit of changing clothes several times. She seems utterly incapable of making a decision. Sara, too, is presented with a choice to make near the end of the play, after having every decision criticized from afar by disapproving parents and an unhelpful boyfriend back home. And finally, it is about the remarkable, compelling, nuanced performances of Carolyn Purcell (as Sarah) and especially Kristi Papailler (as Callie). These are not easy roles to play, not least because their story is not progressing chronologically, not least because one of them spends much of the play in a coma, but they had me convinced at all times that these two chapters of their story were happening at the same time. The entire supporting cast is excellent, with a particular standout in Jeff Mangum as a funny and credible George; he's the kind of guy you'd want to have your back (and I agree with him that Deer Park water does taste like plastic). Pandora is known primarily as Louisville's premiere theatre by and for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, but I don't see any reason why Stop Kiss couldn't be enjoyed by a mature and thoughtful audience of any sexual orientation. I cannot recommend this play enough. One final point that I think must be made: Although this was easily the craziest opening night of any play I have yet attended, with at least one critical light cue coming too early, a possible line flub, a reported minor injury to one of the actors, and even an activated fire alarm and subsequent forced evacuation to Third Street in the middle of a scene (it turned out later to be a false alarm), all that I can easily forgive. What I cannot so easily let pass is the inappropriate and utterly immature reaction of the audience to all of these little opening night kinks. People not only laughed but actually applauded and cheered when a mistake was noticed. Please, people, either grow up or stay home.
Stop Kiss Remaining Performances: September 17, 19, 21, 7:30 pm Tickets: $15 in Advance, $17 Day of Show. General Seating. Playing at Bunbury Theatre at the Henry Clay Starring:
Posted via public wi-fi, Sept. 19, 2008
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