Plenty of comedy amid Chekhovian sense of sorrow
Think of Kevin Elyot’s 1994 play My Night With Reg as The Big Chill meets The Normal Heart.
It has the fashion and friendship dynamics of the former, with the life-and-death stakes and profound sense of loss to the AIDS epidemic found in the latter — though it skips The Normal Heart’s activism and overt politics and turns the struggle entirely inward.
Studio180, known for a heartbreaking production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart in 2012, returns to the Off-Mirvish series with Elyot’s play about a group of gay male friends over several years in the mid-1980s (its previous productions in the series were Clybourne Park and God of Carnage). It even features three of the same actors (Jonathan Wilson, Martin Happer and Jeff Miller). But whereas The Normal Heart had the intensity and the purpose of a public protest, Elyot’s tragicomedy is purely private, never moving from a cosy living room, and always taking place during intimate, invited gatherings (they really could be used as stereotypical examples of the American and British approaches to solving a crisis).
In the three time periods we encounter, the group shrinks slightly, lovers change and feuds build until what begins as a joyful celebration ends markedly more despairing.
The action takes place in Guy’s (Wilson) home, initially at his housewarming party. Guy is the group’s moral centre: tidy, responsible, chaste (except for his phone calls with a man named Brad), fond of bow ties and eternally kind. Several times throughout the play, he is the shoulder upon which his heartbroken friends lean. Guy is unrequitedly in love with John (Gray Powell), who hasn’t kept in close touch with his friends since university 12 years ago.
Daniel (Miller) is John’s best friend, the life of the party, a jet-setter and the partner of the titular Reg: whom we never meet in person, but whose presence we constantly feel. Benny (Happer) and Bernie (Tim Funnell) are a couple on the outs and the much-younger Eric (Alex Furber), hired to paint Guy’s new flat, is the newcomer.
Elyot’s play is imbued with a Chekhovian sense of sorrow that deepens with the passing of time. Joel Greenberg’s production highlights this, as scenes change and time shifts with little to no visual cues.
From year to year, there’s major upheaval but, for the remaining characters, there’s a feeling of stagnation and hopelessness. And much like a Chekhov play, the comedy (and there’s plenty in My Night With Reg) enhances the play’s sorrow and the characters’ inability to deal directly with their pain.
Greenberg’s direction is straightforward and simple but sometimes struggles to remain vibrant with the play’s natural tendency to keep things unsaid. But Happer and Powell, two constants at the Shaw Festival, shine here. Happer has a short but blazing appearance as an unhappy, brutally blunt manipulator and Powell makes John’s inner demons visible to the audience but stifled around those close to him.
It’s a bit disappointing to see My Night With Reg with an all-white cast in a year when Black Lives Matter and Pride Toronto have started conversations about racial inclusion in queer stories and communities. Otherwise, this Canadian premiere tells the story simply and effectively almost as a sort of period piece.