If you thought growing up gay was hard on its own merits, try growing up gay in the Baptist Church. That’s the dilemma in Process Theatre’s “Southern Baptist Sissies,” now playing at Whole World Theatre.
The latest play by Del Shores (“Sordid Lives”) follows four men over a few decades after their eventual realization that they might be gay. The main character is Mark Lee Fuller (Topher Payne), who in his teen years develops a crush on T.J. (Matt Sutter). T.J. shares the feelings, but he can’t handle the situation and decides to start dating women.
The confident Benny (Greg Morris) becomes a drag queen named Iona Traylor. Andrew (Marcelo Banderas) is the most introspective of the group — and the one most racked with guilt.
“Sissies” flip flops between the men’s stories and those of two barflies who meet and form a friendship. Peanut (George Deavours) is a wisecracking middle-aged gay man who befriends Odette (Jo Howarth), a saucy redhead.
Shores’ “Sissies” has its share of patented one-liners, but it ultimately offers more depth and emotion than the popular but lightweight “Sordid Lives.”
And this production is also very well played. Payne handles his lead role easily, going through some tricky emotional material. (Payne is a columnist for David Magazine, which is affiliated with Southern Voice.)
Payne is matched by Banderas and newcomer Sutter. Banderas’ Andrew is the saddest of the characters, and the actor is able to convey a world of pain in his eyes. Sutter convincingly tries to hide his character’s true self. In a stock role, Deavours also brings energy to “Sissies.”
Probably the best performance is that of Greg Morris. He is really the only one of the four main characters who seems to age at all. At first, he is the kid singing in the choir. A number of years later, he is a fiercely independent grown-up, comfortable in his own shoes.
Process Theatre artistic director DeWayne Morgan makes the backdrop of the church a believable, scary world.
He is not afraid to be erotic. A sequence where two of the characters sexually interact while a preacher is mid-sermon is pretty darn steamy. But Morgan also often lets later scenes ramble, tainting the power of earlier moments.
Perhaps most surprisingly, “Southern Baptist Sissies” proves to be a bleak, cynical piece of work. It features vivid characters dealing with gay issues, yet in the end, it seems unfairly grim, almost retro in its outlook.
The show may make for powerful theater, but is this progress?
It’s always easy to cut The Process Theatre a little slack, since they are one of the only troupes in town to go after gay material with such fervor on a regular basis. This is a well-written play that deals impressively and honestly with the pressures of gays and the church.
It’s truly worth seeing, but don’t expect to feel particularly cheery afterwards.
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