What I liked
The one of the strengths of Obie Award winning playwright Christopher Shinn is his ability to whip together a handful of characters into a compelling drama brimming with intensity while simultaneously delineating each one. As Presidential campaign staffers who are tasked with handling their candidate’s troubled gay son, Brendan Farrell and Cherish Duke play the impatient administrator and cajoling uniter with snap and assurance. George Kappaz and Suzanne Ford, as the candidate and his wife, work the positive side of their conflicted feelings toward their child; they love him, but we’re always aware of their attention to the election night event happening on the floor below. Samuel Garnett proves a good friend and calm sounding board to Jack McKeever’s nervy, self-absorbed political scion. When Kappaz and McKeever finally showdown in a scene where—despite the father’s respect for his son’s sexuality—their characters’ familial love can’t overcome their inability to see each other, it’s a fresh and compelling moment of theatre.
What I didn't like
One of Shinn’s weaknesses is overstuffing his plays with too many issues and themes that aren’t germane to each other. The candidate’s son wants to protect his privacy, yet has written a controversial editorial defending free speech in his university’s newspaper, then compounded the conflict when a somewhat offensive photograph of him goes viral. In the second half of the play, there’s a discussion of gay marriage and LGBT community’s impatience on the issue. So which is the theme? Public vs. private? Free speech vs. censorship? LGBT rights circa 2008? I suspect Shinn wants it to be all three, but in a play that’s only an hour long he doesn’t have the space to develop them all.
My overall impression
Some of the best actors in L.A. intimate theater bond together in a strong, well-directed ensemble to elevate Christopher Shinn’s unfocused political drama. This resourceful production of NOW OR LATER is well worth seeing.
