Arts & Entertainment
Dysfunction du jour
Sparring ‘Lyons’ shows some humanity beneath the barbs and jabs
The cast of ‘The Lyons.’ From left are Naomi Jacobson as Rita, John Lescault as Ben, Marcus Kyd as gay son Curtis and Kimberly Gilbert as Lisa. (Photo by Danisha Crosby; courtesy Round House)
‘The Lyons’
Through Dec. 22
Round House Theatre Bethesda
4545 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD
$25-50
240-644-1100
Ah, the Lyons family. For a second they seem a not-unusual American middle class family: long-married parents, a partnered gay son and a divorced daughter with two young children.
But then quickly you realize the subjects of playwright Nicky Silver’s black comedy (straightforwardly titled “The Lyons”), are far from average — in fact, they rank rather high on the familial dysfunction scale. Not as bad as the Manson family, but up there.
Making its D.C.-area premiere at Round House Theatre, Silver’s Broadway hit is in keeping with the gay playwright’s tried and true M.O.: gay son protagonist navigating relationships with an unstable sister and self-involved mother. This particular incarnation kicks off in a hospital room where father Ben (a terrific John Lescault) is dying from cancer while his unconcerned wife Rita (the reliably funny Naomi Jacobson) thumbs through decorating magazines. Eager to redo the living room despite her husband’s objections, Rita chirpily reminds him that he won’t be around to see the results anyway.
Shortly the couple is joined by their adult daughter Lisa (Kimberly Gilbert), an insecure recovering alcoholic, followed by their seemingly composed gay son Curtiss (Marcus Kyd) who comes bearing an enormous peace lily. A visit that should be all about the dying father turns into anything but, soon erupting into an explosion of accusations, revelations and admissions. Throughout it all, Lescault’s Ben who never speaks but yells, makes his distaste for Rita and disappointment in Curtis very clear by dropping a barrage of loud and well-aimed F-bombs.
Silver jumps to and fro from biting dialogue to poignantly revealing monologues. His fabulously insensitive characters leave a trail of barbs, sarcasm and hurt feelings, but they also show flashes of insight, vulnerability and humanity. While each of the Lyons is ferocious in their own way, beneath the contempt that holds them together lies some caring. As the good Jewish mother, Rita worries incessantly about her children finding reasonable mates. She also defends her young fiercely. When her husband first guessed that Curtis was gay, he tossed out his young son’s “Judy at Carnegie Hall” album. That move resulted in Rita purchasing a handgun.
Skilled director John Vreeke has assembled an exceedingly agile group of actors. As Curtis, Kyd gives a nuanced performance. When with the family, he comes off comparatively restrained. Gilbert’s wonderfully messy Lisa, lonely but hopeful, is the family’s most sympathetic member. But it’s far from their parents that the siblings reveal the most — Lisa more appropriately at an AA meeting. But Curtis lets his guard down looking at apartments with a disarming real estate agent played most affectively Brandon McCoy. The results are disastrous. Silver’s characters act out in over-the-top ways (the production’s program credits Joe Isenberg with the excellent fight choreography), but in terms of feelings they’re not so out there.
Rounding out the talented cast is versatile actor Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey as a likable hospital nurse who changes from placid to hardboiled depending on the needs of each patient.
The production looks just right. Misha Kachman’s realistic revolving set doubles as a perfectly nice, standard issue hospital room and a vacant, no-frills New York studio apartment. Rosemary Pardee’s costumes are spot on — the Lyons’ taste level is a little off. They dress sort of suburban hip.
Despite his visceral dissection of the family, Silver is hopeful. When Curtis is at his most alienated and broken down, there’s a pervasive sense that things will improve. We seem to know it gets better.
Team DC, the umbrella organization for LGBTQ-friendly sports teams and leagues in the D.C. area, held its annual Night of Champions Awards Gala on Saturday, April 20 at the Hilton National Mall. The organization gave out scholarships to area LGBTQ student athletes as well as awards to the Different Drummers, Kelly Laczko of Duplex Diner, Stacy Smith of the Edmund Burke School, Bryan Frank of Triout, JC Adams of DCG Basketball and the DC Gay Flag Football League.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2024 National Cannabis Festival was held at the Fields at RFK Stadium on April 19-20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Covering the @NatlCannaFest at RFK Stadium for @WashBlade . Stop by the LGBTQ+ booth and pick up a paper if you are here. pic.twitter.com/is7hnsaPns
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) April 20, 2024
Theater
‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
A ‘fully autobiographical’ work from out artist Adil Mansoor
‘Amm(i)gone’
Thorough May 12
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St., N.W.
$60-$70
Woollymammoth.net
“Fully and utterly autobiographical.” That’s how Adil Mansoor describes “Amm(i)gone,” his one-man work currently playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
Both created and performed by out artist Mansoor, it’s his story about inviting his Pakistani mother to translate Sophocles’s Greek tragedy “Antigone” into Urdu. Throughout the journey, there’s an exploration of family, queerness, and faith,as well as references to teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations with his Muslim mother.
Mansoor, 38, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and is now based in Pittsburgh where he’s a busy theater maker. He’s also the founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former artistic director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQ youth arts organization.
WASHINGTON BLADE: What spurred you to create “Amm(i)gone”?
ADIL MANSOOR: I was reading a translation of “Antigone” a few years back and found myself emotionally overwhelmed. A Theban princess buries her brother knowing it will cost her, her own life. It’s about a person for whom all aspirations are in the afterlife. And what does that do to the living when all of your hopes and dreams have to be reserved for the afterlife?
I found grant funding to pay my mom to do the translation. I wanted to engage in learning. I wanted to share theater but especially this ancient tragedy. My mother appreciated the characters were struggling between loving one another and their beliefs.
BLADE: Are you more director than actor?
MANSOOR: I’m primarily a director with an MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon. I wrote, directed, and performed in this show, and had been working on it for four years. I’ve done different versions including Zoom. Woolly’s is a new production with the same team who’ve been involved since the beginning.
I love solo performance. I’ve produced and now teach solo performance and believe in its power. And I definitely lean toward “performance” and I haven’t “acted” since I was in college. I feel good on stage. I was a tour guide and do a lot of public speaking. I enjoy the attention.
BLADE: Describe your mom.
MANSOOR: My mom is a wonderfully devout Muslim, single mother, social worker who discovered my queerness on Google. And she prays for me.
She and I are similar, the way we look at things, the way we laugh. But different too. And those are among the questions I ask in this show. Our relationship is both beautiful and complicated.
BLADE: So, you weren’t exactly hiding your sexuality?
MANSOOR: In my mid-20s, I took time to talk with friends about our being queer with relation to our careers. My sexuality is essential to the work. As the artistic director at Dreams of Hope, part of the work was to model what it means to be public. If I’m in a room with queer and trans teenagers, part of what I’m doing is modeling queer adulthood. The way they see me in the world is part of what I’m putting out there. And I want that to be expansive and full.
So much of my work involves fundraising and being a face in schools. Being out is about making safe space for queer young folks.
BLADE: Have you encountered much Islamophobia?
MANSOOR: When 9/11 happened, I was a sophomore in high school, so yes. I faced a lot then and now. I’ve been egged on the street in the last four months. I see it in the classroom. It shows up in all sorts of ways.
BLADE: What prompted you to lead your creative life in Pittsburgh?
MANSOOR: I’ve been here for 14 years. I breathe with ease in Pittsburgh. The hills and the valleys and the rust of the city do something to me. It’s beautiful, it’ affordable, and there is support for local artists. There’s a lot of opportunity.
Still, the plan was to move to New York in September of 2020 but that was cancelled. Then the pandemic showed me that I could live in Pittsburgh and still have a nationally viable career.
BLADE: What are you trying to achieve with “Amm(i)gone”?
MANSOOR: What I’m sharing in the show is so very specific but I hear people from other backgrounds say I totally see my mom in that. My partner is Catholic and we share so much in relation to this.
I hope the work is embracing the fullness of queerness and how means so many things. And I hope the show makes audiences want to call their parents or squeeze their partners.
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‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
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