DAPPLES AND GRAYS
Their relationship seems doomed to fail. Brian, who has endured childhood sexual abuse and has had drug and alcohol problems as an adult, is impatient with Gary’s pat, formulaic Christian comforts. Gary perversely wants to save Brian’s soul to redeem himself, wants to prove his own worth as a priest; at one point he howls at Brian, “You’re going to die in grace if I have to kill you for it!” Despite the veneer of civility–these men spend as much time charming as attacking one another–the world of Dapples and Grays is a harsh one in which faith is either beneath contempt orbeyond understanding.
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Nor has Rush quite found a successful way to dramatize the relationship. Brian and Gary spend a lot of time talking about how they feel or relating stories from their troubled pasts, a confessional approach that sacrifices dramatic urgency for efficient emotional exposition. The play should start with the emotional stakes demonstrably high, then show in a more compelling fashion how these feelings and past experiences affect the men’s choices during this crisis; that way the play would unfold in the present, not retreat into the past.
