The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures

The title is certainly representative of the play. Tony Kushner’s new drama The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, currently playing at the Public Theater is, just like its 14-word title: lengthy. Almost four hours long and jam-packed with dialogue from beginning to end, this familial drama is if nothing else, articulate.Guide centers around one family and its patriarch Gus (an excellent Michael Cristofer) who longs to kill himself and has summoned his children for an informal vote on the matter. A labor leader and former Communist, Gus is steadfast in his determination to end his life despite his children’s protests. Widowed, he shares his Brooklyn brownstone with his sister Clio (Brenda Wehle) a former nun, Maoist and a few other things. Gus’ children, all of whom do not support his suicide, are Pill (Stephen Spinella), a gay high school teacher, Empty (Linda Edmond), a lesbian labor lawyer, and V (Stephen Pasquale), a married construction worker. Pill’s long-time partner Paul (K. Todd Freeman), has joined him for this family reunion, much to his own frustration and disgust, and Empty’s pregnant partner Maeve (a hilarious Danielle Skraastad) as well as her ex-husband Adam (Matt Servitto), who lives in the house’s basement apartment, round off the cast of extremely vocal and verbose characters.It wouldn’t be a Kushner play without characters delivering lengthy monologues on academically advanced topics with every scene change. And this play, directed by Michael Greif, is no exception. Each of the people onstage have serious opinions on just about every topic under the sun, including Eli, the hustler Pill has spent more than $30,000 of Empty’s money employing. When all the family members are gathered together, their conversations overlap as they repeatedly interrupt and attempt to drown out each other, the volume of their voices rising until they are almost unintelligible.Some of these discussions become so vocal and even violent that they are impossible to follow, but the main source of contention seems to be general political or moral beliefs – or lack thereof. Disillusioned with the state of America, Gus simply does not want to live any more. Pill and Empty are both suffering from problems in their relationships, Pill’s mainly being his obsession with the young hustler Eli and his inability to refuse him. The question of what will happen to the family home also plagues this clan, and numerous references to Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard are on hand.While debates of morals and afterlife welcome the fusions of the supernatural and natural that Kushner utilized so brilliantly in Angels in America, the same seamlessness is not achieved in Guide, which comes across as awkward and unstructured sometimes and overly articulated almost all the time. But the cast, many of whom have been with this production since its 2009 premiere at the Guthrie Theater, is commended for their ease with this difficult and heavy material. Spinella is brilliantly tortured as Pill, and Edmond’s performance as Empty is one of the most natural ones seen this theater season. As V, the youngest brother, Pasquale gives a performance of admirable intensity, portraying smoldering fury in every action.The title, which references both George Bernard Shaw’s essay “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism” and Mary Baker Eddy’s “Key to the Scriptures” and is explained when Pill discusses his never-ending thesis that he has been working on for almost 20 years. These academic allusions, along with many other aspects of the script, may be amusing to some audience members, but to others they are alienating. The characters, despite the fine performances by the cast, never feel like actual people. It is difficult to remain invested in them. They would serve well as lecturers but I left the theater relieved that they would not be joining my family for dinner any time soon.