He is a successful choreographer, and lives there with his lover Bobby ( Justin Kirk), who is blind. He's proud of the architecture and the furnishings. "I hope you appreciate the details,'' says the narrator, Gregory ( Stephen Bogardus), taking us on a tour of his rambling Victorian lakeside home. But basically he's at the service of the material, which builds firmly and observantly into a touching record of human life-not gay, but universal, since the real issues do not depend on sexuality but on character. He allows himself small flashes of wit (one of the characters, packing his bag, throws in flannel shirts, Winstons and handcuffs). Yet "Love! Valour! Compassion!'' has power and insight, and perhaps what makes it strong is its disinterest in technical experiments: It is about characters and dialogue, expressed through good acting-the very definition of the "well-made play.'' Mantello, who directed the play Off-Broadway and makes his film debut here, is more concerned with recording the performances than with visual innovation. The dramatic arc is so traditional, it's almost reassuring.
And the specter of AIDS will hover over the drama, which is one of the ways these characters must be different from, say, the characters in "The Boys in the Band.'' In crisis, some of the characters will behave well and others badly, and there will be a bittersweet conclusion in which we discover that some will die and others will live, some will be happy and others will remain sad and lonely.Īs a formula, this will do nicely for any set of characters of your choice. All of the friends are gay men, and during the course of the drama some of their relationships will dissolve and some will strengthen, and new ones will form. In content, too, the material is not original. When this play won its 1994 Tony Award, it wasn't for technical innovation. In the second, there is conflict and crisis. In the first act the characters are introduced and their problems are established. A group of friends meets for a June weekend in a country house.
In its structure, Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!'' is as old-fashioned as a 19th century three-act play.
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