Arts & Entertainment
Maps and memories
‘Planet’ production explores fear and isolation among gay men
‘Lonely Planet’
Through June 17
MetroStage
1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria
$45-$50 (military and student discounts available)
703-548-9044
Michael Russotto, left, and Eric Sutton in ‘Lonely Planet’ by playwright Steven Dietz. (Photo by Christopher Banks; courtesy MetroStage)
Tucked away inside his tidy map shop, Jody does his best to keep the uncertainties of the turbulent outside world at bay. But his is an unwinnable strategy. Sooner or later, he must confront what terrifies him most.
In Steven Dietz’s 1994 play “Lonely Planet” — currently playing at MetroStage in Alexandria — the playwright describes a plague that’s affecting men in an American city, and though he doesn’t refer to the disease by name, it’s never for a moment in doubt that the culprit is AIDS. Inspired by maps and Ionesco’s absurdist play “The Chairs,” Dietz explores death and friendship during the most harrowing time of the crisis.
The action is restricted to one space: a small, carefully appointed shop. Here, gay middle-aged Jody (Michael Russotto) has constructed an orderly sanctuary where he deals exclusively with the exactness of latitude and longitude, a place where sales are occasionally referred to, but customers are never seen. We do, however, see Carl (Eric Sutton), a gay younger friend who frequently visits bearing irony and chairs (ladder back, rocker, Windsor) which he persuades Jody to store for him because his apartment is too small. After spinning a tale or two and delivering a pep talk on getting out and about, Carl dashes off to one of his invented jobs (tabloid reporter, art conservator, auto glazier) only to return minutes later with more chairs and chatter.
Soon we learn that Carl’s ever-increasing hoard of chairs once belonged to his and Jody’s friends who have died in the frighteningly lethal epidemic. Carl keeps one chair belonging to each victim as a remembrance. It’s also revealed that Carl’s true employment involves clearing out the homes of these recently deceased friends. And those made-up jobs? They also belonged to the dearly departed.
After intermission, the stage is lit to reveal even more chairs (straw bottomed, barber, Breuer). The image gets a chuckle from the audience, but they’re a terrifying reminder to Jody of death, disease and the uncertainty of his HIV status (Jody has yet to be tested). His fear is palpable. It’s up to Carl to coax Jody to venture beyond the store.
Set designer Jane Fink has imagined a shop filled with globes and scrolled maps. Its heavy dark furniture and transom door feel entirely resistant to time. The stage is backed by a wall of collaged maps. At the top of a simple proscenium is the earth as photographed from outer space. By the show’s end, dozens of chairs are piled on the stage, creating a tall and odd monument. Sounds questionable, but it proves exceedingly poignant.
As Jody and Carl, Russotto and Sutton, respectively (both actors are gay), are believable as longtime, caring friends and each do their best to elevate sometimes plodding monologues. Russotto’s performance is deceptive — it’s quiet but packs an emotional wallop. And Sutton is delightful as the vexing, leather vest-wearing Carl whose sarcasm can belie his good heartedness.
Despite the sad subject matter, much of “Lonely Planet” is playful and fun. And while the allegorical and symbolic aspects of the show can get a little heavy handed, skilled director John Vreeke (also gay) guides the actors in creating some glowing, touching moments. And Vreeke (with the help of lighting designer Jessica Lee Winfield) stages the unexpected and very memorable ending just right.
At a recent performance, the audience was comprised mostly of midshipmen from the Naval Academy’s drama group, the Masqueraders. It struck others present that these young men and women were toddlers when the play was penned almost 20 years ago. Through “Lonely Planet,” they traveled to a time when testing positive was a death sentence, but they were also shown a glimpse of the gay community at its very best and the enduring value of friendship.
The 2026 Capital Pride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Landon Shackelford)
Theater
‘Feeling Afraid’ explores life of a neurotic stand-up comic
Navigating sex, work, and possibly love in London
‘Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen’
Through July 12
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$55-$102
Studiotheatre.org
Wordily yet rightly titled, solo show “Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen” dives deeply into the world of a neurotic stand-up comic as he navigates sex, work, and possibly love in London.
Busy arranging hookups and dates on “The App,” the 36-year-old gay funnyman juggles a full dance card; still he’s never been in a romantic relationship. While he’s willing to give love a shot, he’s not pressed about it. As he says, he harbors no fear of dying alone.
Currently making its American premiere at Studio Theatre, this darkly humorous Edinburgh Fringe import features terrific out English actor Steven Webb as The Comedian who’s about to explore what it means to spend all his time with one man.
At Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Kat Heath’s minimal set says standard comedy club (fluorescent tube lighting, the mic with a long cord, a single stool backed by a rose-colored curtain), but gay playwright Marcelo Dos Santos has conjured something much more than a live comedy set.
Yes, The Comedian bounces onstage in his red Converse high tops, jeans, and pink shirt with a huge mouth emblazoned on the back, but he delivers more than jokes. At times hilariously self-deprecating, then dark, and occasionally a lesson on what makes standup work, this is a layered, well-acted piece.
With Webb (a keen caricaturist of types and voices) playing all the parts while conducting The Comedian’s hilariously frenetic interior monologue, “Feeling Afraid” takes us through a summer of love. It seems after six chaste dates with The American, our nervous hero has found Mr. Right. The American is earnest, smart, hesitant to initiate sex. He’s also well built with a beautiful smile. And strangely, he’s been medically advised not to laugh aloud.
The Comedian delights in the joys of new love: dates, first kisses, sex, and then suddenly spending all of his time with the adored. Visits to art galleries become fun. Eating home cooked meals followed by grim documentaries is a thing. The Comedian is beguiled as his own boyish figure fills out, but something isn’t right. He can’t entirely relax.
Along the way we meet the Aussie doctor, our protagonist’s longtime hookup; a young runner with some exceptional body parts; the random third in a failed threesome; grumpy working comics, male and female; and an ineffectual counselor.
Webb gives a lightning-fast performance that boggles the mind (in terms velocity and virtuosity). He can be impish, very impish. He’s nervous energy incarnate, flashing jazz hands, grimacing but handsome when still. He’s likeable, a necessity when delivering a hilariously rude joke just feet away from two stone-faced audience members. (Perhaps they were laughing on the inside? At any rate, they stayed through the end the show.)
Produced by the team behind Fringe hits “Fleabag” and “Baby Reindeer,” small stage works that were developed into major TV screen successes, “Feeling Afraid” is funny for sure, and it’s also highly confessional, sexually explicit, and raw.
Written by Dos Santos during COVID lockdown, the piece was a smash hit in the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe before finding further success in London. Its depiction of a youngish queer guy navigating the big city rings entirely true. Like so much Fringe stuff, the one-man show is delightfully lewd and standup inspired.
One little moan: the show closes cleverly but too abruptly with its star dashing offstage without sufficiently basking in the admiration and applause of his thoroughly chuffed audience.
They say third time’s a charm, and regarding “Feeling Afraid,” I’d agree. After two performance cancellations (first for laryngitis and the second involving faulty air conditioning on an especially muggy June evening), I made my third trek to Studio where I found both the actor and AC in very fine fettle. And truly, Webb’s work was more than worth the wait.
The 2026 Baltimore Pride Festival, “Pride in the Park,” was held at Druid Hill Park on Sunday, June 14.
(Washington Blade photos by Linus Berggren)
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