OnStage Playhouse’s recent production of Geoffrey Nauffts’s “Next Fall,” winner of the 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New American Play and a Tony Award nomination for Best Play, proved once again that the intimate community theater in downtown Chula Vista was willing to bring a potentially controversial topic to the stage.
Audience members found the play, which ran March 3-25, thoughtful and well done besides being superbly acted and directed.
The subject matter broached is not any everyday thing for theater.
After a serious accident, a couple’s private lives are forcibly brought out in the open. Luke, Adam’s gay partner, is injured, but Luke’s parents have been kept in the dark about their relationship. If a couple doesn’t share religious beliefs, a battle may ensue. However, this difficulty can be even more of a clash when a man’s parents are firmly against gay relationships due to religious beliefs.
Beliefs by various religions were also brought out in the play.
All in the cast rose to the occasion of dealing with a sensitive situation.
Luke, portrayed by Rob Conway, was a central figure and revealed why so many care for this young man. Tony Bejarano, Luke’s partner, played Adam with neurotic humor. Luke’s devoted friends were carefully drawn by Kira Vine and Chris Tenney.
The parents, played by James Tarbert and Susan Bray, added a certain depth to the play by revealing their emotional reactions toward a seriously injured son. Their portrayals were haunting and remembered long after the play was finished.
As director, Susan Stratton demonstrated her prowess by creating a world where all characters were sympathetic, even if their values might have been different from the audience. The set designer, lighting designer, sound designer, and costume designer, Bruce Wilde, Chad Oakley, Steve Murdock, and Tony Bejarano, respectively, united in creating a set of various scenes with fluidity and clarity.
Thanks go to Bruce Wilde and Sue Roos as producers of the play.
OnStage Playhouse’s upcoming production of “Heathers The Musical” is slated April 21 to May 27.
