Playing by the Rules
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Rod Dungate’s bleak, seductive, well-crafted play about English street hustlers bluntly stages the commodification and exploitation of boys in the sex trade. Plainly described gay sex and plainly presented gay romance give this tale about the dehumanization of love an uneasy tension, a restlessness that defines and traps all its characters. Everyone is always moving: dancing, fighting, running off to a trick, fading into the shadows, reappearing from a corner somewhere, wired and wary. Always a little mocking, a little coy, the characters interact with the audience, making them complicit: voyeurs, consumers, confidants.
The story follows the professionalization of a new boy, 15-year-old Danny, who’s transformed from naive runaway to slick procurer as he learns the rules of the street. But it also follows the coming out of Danny’s lover Steve, complicated by Steve’s ex-girlfriend and the tight circle of friends, gay and straight, who people the show. Jay Danner gives Steve–who’s our primary guide–an agile, intelligent flair in a standout performance that fuels the evening. Andrew Schlessinger and Mitchell J. Fain offer strong supporting work, shifting roles to tell the story. Joe Rosato as Danny changes believably from genuine to feigned naivete, turning openmouthed youthful greed into a plausible beginning for the pimp he becomes.
