Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Past Shows

The Last Sunday in June

The Last Sunday in June
Written by Jonathan Tolins
Directed by Trip Cullman

January 31 – March 9, 2003
Extended through March 16, 2003
Moved to Century Theatre April 1, 2003
Opened at Century Theatre April 9, 2003

Starring:
Arnie Burton
Donald Corren
Johnathan McClain
Susan Pourfar
Mark Setlock
Peter Smith
David Turner
Matthew Wilkas

Set Design: Takeshi Kata
Lighting Design: Paul Whitaker
Costume Design: Alejo Vietti
Sound Design: Jeffrey Yoshi Lee
PSM: Lori Ann Zepp

“THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE” is set in the Christopher Street apartment of a young gay couple during the annual New York City Gay Pride Parade. Intending to spend the afternoon alone planning their upcoming move to the “burbs,” Michael and Tom’s afternoon is interrupted by one friend after another dropping in, sparking a chain of events that rocks the foundations of their relationship.

FROM THE NYTIMES:
A group of gay men gather in an apartment on Christopher Street and discuss the exigencies of gay life; the banter is quick, arch, never-ending and complete with persistent sexual innuendo, references to opera and the lingering shadow of AIDS.

The cast of characters is carefully representative. It includes a young actor, newly out, exuberant with his sexual freedom; a 50-year-old veteran of the gay revolution who has yet to find personal peace; a sardonic wit whose H.I.V.-positive status makes him slightly bitter and desperate; a shirtless hunk; and the hosts of the gathering, a lawyer and a teacher who have been together for seven years and whose seeming contentment is just that, seeming.

These are among the obvious conventions at work in ‘‘The Last Sunday in June,’‘ a new play by Jonathan Tolins at the Rattlestick Theater. And it all might be tiresome if convention itself weren’t the object of Mr. Tolins’s savvy scrutiny.

‘‘A gay play,’‘ says Charles (Donald Corren), the 50-year-old, ‘‘is one with a bunch of gay guys in an apartment or a country house,’‘ complaining and joking about what it means to be gay.

To which the H.I.V.-positive Brad (Arnie Burton) responds, ‘‘That would never happen.’‘

CHARLES: And all the characters are witty and touching as they laugh through the pain of being reviled. That’s a gay play.
TOM (the lawyer): I hate classifying everything that way. ‘‘Gay play.’‘ What’s a ‘‘straight play’‘?
MICHAEL (the teacher): Mamet.
CHARLES: You see? That’s exactly the kind of joke that would be in the play about us.

This exchange, which couldn’t be more accurate in its synopsis, is typical of Mr. Tolins’s shrewd humor. Throughout this smart, timely and funny play, the self-awareness of the characters is eclipsed only by that of the playwright, whose intention here is clearly to express impatience with the staler elements of gay dramatic literature and to push the ‘‘gay’‘ play forward into its next generation of concerns.