All theater is storytelling. However, there are some plays like “we are continuous” which is playing at the Nikos Stage of the Williamstown Theatre Festival in which the story is merely a guideline for the playwright to reveal personal attitudes.
We’re all familiar with the theater cliché “Boy Meets Girl. Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl.” It tells us everything we can expect to get from a certain type of play.
You can simplify “we are continuous” in the same manner. A 15-year old African-American boy tells his family he is homosexual. Mother accepts the situation. The father rejects his son.
Years later Boy married a white male partner, Mom supports, father denies.
In 2018 Boy contracts AIDS. Mother gives loving support. Father rejects son.
By the way, the characters are identified as Mother, Son and Husband. The Father never makes an appearance.
Clearly, the latter is far more complicated than boy meets girl. On the other hand, it’s not a unique story either in life or in the theater. Tragedy strikes all the time.
The strength of the piece is about how the story is told and performed. At Williamstown the story is told with love, heart and truth.
Playwright Harrison David Rivers writes in the form of direct address. Each of the three characters tell their own stories to the audience and there is no direct interaction between characters.
The play is based on the playwright’s own life experiences and this style is an appropriate way for him to see and tell several sides of his life-changing experience.
This form offers each character opportunities to speak with beauty and affection about one another. By the end of the 90-minute intermission-less production we meet a trio of caring people who have one thing in common - true affection for a person suffering from a dreadful disease.
Son is played by Leland Fowler, a powerful but sensitive actor who never plays the victim, He is clear-eyed about his situation, yet yearns for only one thing. He makes clear his need for supportive love and his appreciation of those who give it.
That his father can reject his own son is confusing to him and is one of the things we ponder as we go home after the play.
In contrast, it is Mother with whom we identify. Tenderly played by Brenda Pressley, her love and acceptance of her son makes the play a romance.
Pressley plays the woman as tough, realistic and elegant. She has the honor of being able to eloquently speak of the nature of true love and does it beautifully.
The only problem is she is a gentle loving soul and that carries into her performance. Her inner-monologues are often so personal. She delivers them so softly they are often hard to hear.
Tom Holcomb as the Husband enters the play about 1/3 of the way through. He is a breath of fresh air offering a dynamic, refreshing performance adding brightness to a play that has dwelled in darkness. Holcomb defines life and vitality and gives his husband a reason to enjoy the present and believe in a future.
Director Tyler Thomas keeps the scenes that jump between two separate apartments creatively designed by DOTS and splendidly lit by Amith Chandrashaker.
It was a weird feeling sitting through a theatrical production about a pandemic 40 years old, while fully masked to protect from a new current pandemic.
I found it difficult to fully invest emotionally to the play. I think the absence of the father denies some drama from the situation.
However, I fear some might see this as simply an AIDS play and therefore about a disease that no longer demand our full attention.
For those individuals please realize there were 700,000 cases of AIDS in 2018, when the Son was diagnosed, there were 680,000 new cases in 2020.
No, this is not an AIDS play. “we are continuous” shows us love and acceptance are never unneeded nor out-of-date.
“we are continuous” continues at Williamstown Theatre Festival through August 14. For schedule and ticket information go wtfestival.org or call 413-458-3253.
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
