Home by Dark

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Terry Dodd's new play, Home By Dark, currently playing at Curious Theatre Company reflects an autobiographical account of a confrontation by his father in 1986.

Michael McNeill and Jake Walker in Curious Theatre's production of Home by Dark. (Michael Ensminger )

Something ominous about the initial scene, with Dale standing outside of the garage, snow falling softly in the dark, points strongly toward an uncomfortable confrontation lying in wait. It is always intriguing how one small scene lasting only a few seconds can actually tell a story in itself. This one does.

A few seconds of surprised conversation floats between the two until Dale demands, "Is it true?"

It's a confrontation that takes place thousands of times every year when a parent hears a child of theirs may be Gay.

A feeling of anger wells, the sense of embarrassment, "How could you do this to me?" grinds into the soul of the parent, grinds into the soul of Dale, until he thinks he is going to explode. McNeill, however, appears too emotionally deprived as though he hesitates to get too involved in Dale's soul.

Directed by Jamie Horton, now an Associate Professor of Theatre at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, but for 23 years he was a principle member of the Denver Center Theatre Company. (Whether appropriate or not, it has to be said, he is grandly missed).

The 90-minute play covers vast territory as Dale moves from confused, angry, hurt, distraught, to acceptance.

Recognizing he nearly lost his son once, he does not want to lose him again. Unfortunately, all too often, the later is true for many a parent who cannot bring themselves to accept a son or daughter as Homosexual.

Whether this can believably transpire in 90-mnutes is up for grabs. It did appear with Home By Dark, too much happened too soon, to quickly. The Greeks learned to sit through ten hours for a production, but that doesn't fit our life-style.

This is an important issue with Dodd, and that shows, remembering his father, a state patrolman, with a great deal of loss, and affection.

There is a major difference between an actor showing stiffness with a role over against a character being thrust into a stiff uncomfortable position. McNeill needs to be aged slightly for this role. He appears too young. Maybe he isn't, but he looks it, becoming a major distraction. I strongly sensed from stiff body language he was more uncomfortable than Dale. Of course, Dale is uncomfortable, but the stiff uncomfortableness I saw was not coming from the character.

Walker enveloped himself in Mark's shoes wanting desperately to convince his father he was indeed Gay. At last, he was comfortable with who he is, and who he has become. Walker's expressions for Mark revealed his inside world. Uncanny, he was to watch. Even in his silent moments, his eyes spoke.

There are some grand moments within the context of the play. McNeill, for a short while, loses his stiffness when anger grips both of them at the same time. There are gentle moments when Dale asks Mark what it is about men that attracts him. Mark turns the tables on Dale asking him what it is about women that attracts him. In comparing notes, they discover the answer is the same for both. For a few moments, Dale's eyes reflect an inside revelation.

However, at the end of the 90 minutes I felt I had been hammered with a lecture as Dodd wanted to make sure appropriate and right information got sent out to the audience. I can appreciate Dodd's wanting to project correct, factual, honest information. In the midst of a heated confrontation, factual information generally does not play a significant role. The confrontation out of fear, anxiety, and anger doesn't recognize "head thinking" when the heart is breaking into a zillion unknown pieces. Most parents do a great deal of research on the subject before the confrontation. If they did, there is the possibility a confrontation wouldn't take place in the first place.

Over the years I have been privileged to hear some horrendous stories from males and females concerning such confrontations. Most of what I have heard doesn't end up with the two going out together for breakfast. Most of the stories broke my heart.

I totally understand what Dodd wants to accomplish, but the way Home By Dark has been put together, given the time frame, doesn't work.

Considering the time frame of 1986, not a whole lot of correct information about AIDS was common knowledge. Much mythological speculation floated around through the media, none of which, fortunately, turned out to be true. To insert an educational dissertation on AIDS in the middle of the play seemed hardcore manipulation.

The State Fair story at the end is way too long. The transition between confrontation and the story gets lost in the words. Part of the difficulty is McNeill as Dale plays to the audience, when, in fact, he should be remembering the story directly with Mark. It is not only Dale's story, but also Mark's experience. In a clear transition, the state fair story could be a powerful revelation. It needs to be shortened so the dull and boring can be cut. Dull and boring because it goes on and on, taking too long to get to the Aha moment.

If Dale started the story with "I almost lost you once. I certainly don't want to do it again," the transition between confrontation and State Fair would feed into each other. In noodlling about Home By Dark with a friend, he said he had forgotten about the state fair adventure until I brought it up. That comment says a great deal about the distracting to "longness".

A young boy working at the State Fair carnival, knows he always had to be home by dark didn't make it one night. That night grew wings on a young man who suddenly realized what it meant to be a Father. A truth that sometimes never grips some fathers. For that matter, a truth that sometimes doesn't grip some mothers.

Michael Duran designed the delicious set with a strong comprehension for a college boy's digs. Upon first sight, you know exactly who lives within those walls.

Dodd has indeed an important piece with Home By Dark, and it will settle well with a good many people. However with some re-writing, and reconsidering the lecturing, it could become a universal 90-minutes trumped with an honest fearful confrontation with parenthetical humor cutting through the edges. Knowledgeable people, on the other hand, want to see, hear, and feel the depth of the confrontation. The lecture destroys that. This point alone will keep Home By Dark from becoming universal, settling for a few who are grabbed by it, when it has the potential of universality.

Home by Dark
World Premiere by Terry Dodd and directed by Jaime Horton