By Dale King
The morality drama The Twilight of the Golds asks a question that some might not want to answer: If parents knew their child would be born gay, would they allow the birth or choose abortion?
Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs takes a bold step by opening the 2013-14 season for Theatre II with this taut and tense tragicomedy, which demands responses to this difficult query. The play gets tenser when the pros and cons of both sides are debated, ripping the lid off pent-up emotions and revealing harsh, though often honest, truths.
Playwright Jonathan Tolins sharpens the play’s edge by letting it take place in the setting of an apparently nice Jewish family. While Tolins slips in some quips and comic lines, in the end, the dialogue seems to ring hollow against the main matter at hand. He also makes a pun of the play’s title. Twilight of the Golds is a variation on Twilight of the Gods, composer Richard Wagner’s fiery opera Gotterdammerung. That word has come to refer in English to a disastrous conclusion of events. The Wagner theme is repeated throughout the play in words, music and fantastic visual effects of fire and water, a tribute to the sound and light crews.
Michael Leeds directs this masterful production using a five-person cast of well-wrought actors. Our first stage glimpse is of opera lover David Gold (James Hesse), one of two children of Walter (Larry Kent Bramble) and Phyllis (Phyllis Spear) Gold. David’s sister, Suzanne (Sarah Miller) is married to a doctor, Rob (Jeffrey Scott Leshansky) Stein. So her new surname is Gold-Stein, she jokes, in what the audience might take as a run-up to just another Yiddish play.
But the hint of trouble has already been laid – and humor takes a back seat. The program given to theater-goers says the play is set in 1993 — the year it first was performed — and it covers events that occurred during the year. Much of that list is overshadowed by the fact that “the AIDS crisis is at fever pitch.”
David doesn’t immediately tell us he’s gay, but the signs are there — references to his “significant other” named “Steve,” for example. Leaning heavily on Wagner’s work heard blasting at times throughout the play, David clearly indicates there’s a message in this medium.
Things are pretty mellow for a while. The extended Gold family gathers happily, more or less, at Rob’s and Suzanne’s third-anniversary party when David notes he and Steve are about to mark their third year together. The talk of being gay isn’t obviously upsetting to the rest of the family, but tension begins to crackle in the air.
When Suzanne tells everyone she’s pregnant, they all revel — except Rob. Why didn’t she tell him first, he fumes? When he calms, he asks her to submit to a test to determine the baby’s sex, but the exam goes a lot further. Rob brings home scans of the pre-born infant’s brain and claims his colleague has determined the images match photos of homosexuals’ brains. Suzanne is distraught and gives serious thought to abortion.
When the news trickles back to David, he’s incensed. He confronts Mom and Pop, who avow their parental love, but can’t deny that they, too, might have considered abortion under similar circumstances. Appalled, David cuts off communication.
The final clash pits David and Suzanne against each other. He pleads with her to go through with the birth, but she is very vulnerable and sorely undecided about the child’s fate. What results is a fierce battle that tears at the hearts of the two siblings and puts the brother-sister relationship in harm’s way.
Twilight of the Golds is an uncomfortable play, and kudos are in order for the actors who took and passed the challenge of performing the various parts. Though his role places him in the bright glare of the gay spotlight, Hesse is remarkably at ease in his style and skill onstage. His temperament waxes and wanes well, given the many play’s many emotional demands.
As his sister, Miller combines humor and pathos without letting either suffer. She also holds her own during the times she goes toe-to-toe with her sometimes insufferable “brother.” Her stage presence easily carries her through scenes with tough elements. Bramble and Spear are a couple of stage veterans who grasp their roles with excitement, even if they must often act dour. Both have extensive credentials, and Bramble reaches even deeper into his acting soul than he did in his fatherly role in last season’s Beau Jest.
Leshansky gives his character of Rob, the doctor, very little bedside manner and his wife only a modicum of affection. He is excellent because he makes the audience dislike him, even though it’s in a gentle sort of way.
This thought-provoking play asks more questions than it answers. Are we capable of unconditional love? It also contends that no technology, old or new, can resolve philosophical and ethical questions. Ultimately, we are responsible for our own decisions.
TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS is playing through Oct. 27 at the Broward Stage Door Theater, 8036 W. Sample Road, in Coral Springs. For information, call 954-344-7765 or visit www.stagedoortheatre.com.