Family Resemblance

Iron Kisses – Theatre Above the Law

I think everyone remembers where they were the first time they hear their parents’ words coming out of their own mouths. It eventually happens to us all. Some turn of phrase we associate with them, maybe some well-worn piece of advice or the thing your parents said to you that you swore you would never say to your kids, will fall out of your mouth with exactly their cadence and intonation. It almost feels like they were speaking through you, as if it weren’t really your voice. Theatre Above the Law’s new production of Iron Kisses takes the phenomenon to new heights by casting a pair of actors as siblings, but also casting both siblings at various times as both of their parents.

The play starts with one of the two cast members, David Cameli, alone on a nearly bare stage. He portrays Billy, a very nice gay man who grew up in a small town in the Midwest, and both his parents. In his mother’s voice, he recalls receiving the hand-written invitation to her son’s wedding. We see both his parents come to terms (after a fashion) with their son’s sexuality, then have that detente upset by the prospect of him getting married. Asking them to attend may be the step too far for them. I admit that in this first act, the conceit had the feeling of something closer to a theater exercise than a more fully realized story, but as the show progressed, all three people Cameli portrays get more fleshed out and the transitions become more engaging. The moment the play really switched on for me was when it moves to Bailey Castle alone on stage as Billy’s sister Barbara and their parents. Having both actors portray both parents lets them be more fleshed out than they would be alone. Brian’s mother is a sweet, doting, if slightly reserved woman. Barbara’s mother is exasperating and all they do is fight. But they’re still the same person. The two portrayals of the parents, related but slightly different, help create more nuanced, complete characters than I thought they would be at the start of the show, when they were closer to stereotypes of conservative Midwest parents.

I will also say I initially bristled at where the show seemed to be focusing in the first act. Given the renewed attacks on marriage equality in today’s world, a story about watching two conservative parents come to grips with it is not exactly fun for me. I’ll say it this way: it gets exhausting constantly being asked to extend limitless understanding to people whose main goal seems to be never having to extend that same understanding to anyone else. By incorporating the same people and events from Barbara’s perspective, the play becomes a story about a more real, complicated family, rather than a homily on acceptance. Billy strove to be perfect as some kind of unspoken apology for being gay. Barbara did not want to be the traditional daughter, but now is seen as that, almost by default. By the third act, when Billy and Barbara get to interact with each other as themselves, that history makes for a very real and interesting scene.

The big question looming over any kind of theatrical invention like this is, “Is it worth the effort?” Would the story have been as or more effective if it were a traditional play with four actors, each portraying one character? Happily, I think the choice to double cast both parents in both their children adds a layer of insight to the play. We get to see the threads that tie us to our parents and that we pass on to our children. We get to see the little pieces that we take from everyone around us in building ourselves. And in the final scene, it payoffs in the unique, deeply personal vocabulary siblings have for talking about their shared lives.

Finally, I just want to heap unreserved praise on Cameli and Castle. They were great. The physical transitions could easily have read as hokey or stagey and they do not. They found a common language for portraying both parents that made them feel like they came from a common source, but are portrayed through each child’s unique experience. And in their final scene, the structure that I questioned at the start of the show paid off in spades, as it formed the connective tissue for a quiet, but deeply moving, resolution.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented April 5-28 at Theatre Above the Law, 1439 W. Jarvis, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased at www.theatreatl.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.