Friends and Relations

After watching Marc Castle's new play "Friends and Relations," my immediate impulse was to reach for the remote and eject the DVD. This straightforward comedy-drama about a group of gay male friends living in Manhattan from 1977 to 1987 felt like one of those interchangeable TLA Video gay indie releases. Featuring a capable cast of seven easy-on-the-eyes guys and brisk direction by Adam Fitzgerald, there's nothing particularly wrong with the show. It's just been done so many times before.

The quintessentially white yuppie characters all start out somewhere in their 20s. Emotionally constricted Miles (Matt Golden) is a graphics designer who works with the flamboyant Ross (Christopher Sloan), a magazine editor with a fondness for Hollywood divas. The politically minded Byron (Vince Nappo), a therapist, is in a long-term open relationship with dental student and party boy Glen (Nigel DeFriez). The studly Dean (Dan Amboyer), Miles' best friend from college, is a promiscuous actor destined for TV stardom in L.A. who eventually takes up with the sweet-natured Bobby (Ben Roberts), who quits acting and becomes a travel agent just to be near him. Cute-as-a-button Corey (Joel T. Bauer) is an aspiring actor with a hot body and an alcohol problem who beds Dean briefly but falls for Miles, with predictable happy-sad consequences.

Castle tries to make it fresh by fracturing the chronology, beginning the play with Corey's 1986 return from spending two years in Chicago after having broken up with Miles, then jumping back to 1977. The story is then told linearly in alternating time frames. But there are no surprises as the characters behave badly, learn hard lessons, mature or not, and continue gallantly on. At least the final scene exhorting comradeship isn't accompanied by Bette Midler singing "Friends."

The talented company is a reminder of the impressive depth of the New York City acting pool. Though the actors can't transcend the stereotypical characters, they lend them immediacy and freshness, offer detail and nuance, and are convincing in the differing intimacies of lovers and friends.

David L. Arsenault's simple unit set cannily allows for quick changes between the two time frames and is effectively lit by Travis McHale. I could, however, have done with a bit more period specificity in Erica Evans' costumes.

It is unfortunate that the only character to die from AIDS (or even struggle with it) is the hedonistic Glen, as it reinforces that old canard that only gay men who behave "badly"—sleep around, do drugs, party at the Saint—get the disease, a judgmental belief that I hope we are long past. It's just one more thing that makes "Friends and Relations" feel so been there, done that.
 
Presented by No Anita No Productions and Tom Keegan at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's June Havoc Theatre, 312 W. 36th St., 1st floor, NYC. Dec. 4–17. Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 2 p.m. www.friendsandrelationstheplay.com. Casting by Paul Davis/Calleri Casting.