I’ve never studied Marx, but I was raised as a Christian Scientist, so I’ve been looking forward to Tony Kushner’s "The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures" for quite a while. Surprisingly, I’m not so sure the tongue-tripping title fits this corking drama of extreme family dysfunction, even if that dysfunction is rooted in the family patriarch’s devotion to dialectics and one character develops a thing for Mary Baker Eddy’s famous religious text. Kushner has created fascinating people and plenty of interesting story that more than justify the play’s four acts and three-hour-and-40-minute running time. Still, as with earlier works such as “Homebody/Kabul” and “Angels in America,” I have a hunch he’s not finished with this one yet and more revisions in further productions lie ahead.
Gus Marcantonio, a retired longshoreman and longtime Communist Party activist, has called his three children to the family brownstone in Brooklyn to take a vote on his plan to kill himself. The kids know dad is serious, because he has already tried it once. The eldest, Pill (short for PierLuigi), is a 50ish high school history teacher and would-be party historian obsessed with a 20-something hustler, the Yale-educated Eli, a relationship that has destabilized Pill’s enduring marriage to Paul, an African-American professor of theology. Middle child Empty (short for Maria Teresa), a nurse turned labor lawyer and all-around chip off the old block, has a lover, Maeve, also a theologian, who is about to have a child Empty doesn’t want. The child’s father happens to be V (short for Vito), Empty’s butch younger brother, who works as a contractor and, unlike his older siblings, was never indoctrinated into the family politics. Also on hand are Sooze, V’s Korean-American wife; Adam, Empty’s ex-husband, who lives in the brownstone’s basement; and the impassive Clio, Gus’ sister, a former Carmelite nun and Maoist, who’s been living watchfully with her brother in the year since his suicide attempt. Their father’s implicit rejection of them pushes the kids’ considerable buttons and much psychological havoc is absorbingly wreaked as Gus works relentlessly to get his way.
A press release says the play “explores revolution, radicalism, marriage, sex, prostitution, politics, real estate, unions of all kinds, and debts both unpaid and unpayable.” Whew. And I suppose it does, but right now they’re too often butting up against each other rather than synthesizing satisfactorily. Nevertheless, beat by beat the play is compelling, and Kushner’s acutely observed, often overlapping dialogue is well-served by a dynamite cast under Michael Greif’s meticulous direction. There are some terrific set pieces, including Paul’s anti–Marcantonio clan rants and a slam-bang Act 2 closer, but the oddly tentative lady-or-the-tiger ending doesn’t work.
In a grandly impressive turn, Michael Cristofer gives Gus the Shakespearean size and depth he requires. Stephen Spinella’s excellent Pill is a walking wound with a wounding wit. Linda Emond imbues Empty with a flinty coolness masking a roiling interior. Steven Pasquale is a riveting V, expertly combining explosive strength with a tantalizing emotional fragility. Brenda Wehle is an appropriately world-weary and wary Clio.
K. Todd Freeman nimbly alternates between assaultive and anguished as the buttoned-down Paul and handles those anti-in-law rants with style. Danielle Skraastad, as Maeve, and Hettienne Park, as Sooze, stress some intriguing similarities in these Marcantonio spouses and contribute significant humor. Matt Servitto’s shlumpy, bewildered Adam rises brilliantly and hilariously to that Act 2 curtain. Michael Esper’s lambent emotional transparency highlights the vulnerability beneath Eli’s bravado. As Shelle, an Irish-American widow who helps people commit suicide, Molly Price makes the most of her one scene.
Mark Wendland’s homey, lived-in set creates the successful illusion of four stories and convincingly embodies Gus’ history. That’s good, as I think Gus is the key to Kushner’s opus. His emotional journey—from his shifting reasons for suicide to his changing perspectives on his children and his life’s work—keeps us hooked. Even if Kushner takes too many side trips, his play is still immensely invigorating and entertaining.
Presented by the Public Theater and Signature Theatre Company, in association with the Guthrie Theater, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. May 5–June 12. Tue.–Sat., 7 p.m.; Wed. and Sat., 1 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or www.signaturetheatre.org. Casting by Jordan Thaler and Heidi Griffiths.