Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Imagine if Albin and Georges of the beloved musical La Cage aux Folles aged a bit more, and one suddenly found himself nearing the end of his life and you’d somewhat approximate Irish playwright Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold, a tartly written if slightly confounding male weepie. Based on an actual couple, Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, a gay duo who founded the Gate Theatre in Dublin in the 1920s, the partners this time around are named Gabriel (Martin Rayner) and Conrad (Charles Shaw Robinson), the former a makeup-wearing grande dame, a devilish cad famous in his own mind, the latter a mild-mannered but quietly conflicted observer, watching his lover die slowly of an unnamed affliction.

At the top of the play, we see Conrad interview a feisty nurse, Alma (Kathleen McNenny, funny and genuine), who takes no guff but Gabriel sees a vulnerability there, present in the knowledge of her brother’s car accident death years back, which continues to haunt her. Meanwhile, Gabriel’s sister Kassie (Diane Ciesla), a blowsy broad who talks a blue streak, visits her beloved brother with his nephew Ryan (Seth Numrich), who had an affair with Conrad and has major daddy issues, many of which go unresolved.

Mostly, Kent Paul’s production revolves around lengthy mano y mano scenes, and this is actually when the play is at its best. McGuinness has a nice way with dialogue, fashioning crisp exchanges that stop just short of sitcomville, and Rayner runs with the best of them here. Nicely scaled back (except in silly moments when the character groans in pain), Rayner has good chemistry with his costars, and isn’t afraid to unveil Gabriel’s darker side, like when he taunts the others for their weaknesses. Ciesla is fun too, though one wishes her character had a little more to do. But compared to the hastily drawn character of Ryan, who barely seems to exist, even though he is a point of contention mentioned throughout, it is a wealth of presence, mainly because Numrich brings little flavor to the already underwritten part.

There’s a tighter two-person play struggling to bust out of Gates of Gold, but one could never quibble with its pace. Director Paul keeps the scenes moving even in the cramped setting (a bedroom and a parlor share 59E59’s smallish Theater B), and lets McGuinness’s quips keep on comin’ (when Gabriel reflects on his lover’s affair with Ryan, he offers “Is he into necrophilia“”). There’s an underlying sweetness to the piece that makes it very easy to sit through, and much of the cast are right on track, but it’s good enough to make one wish it were even better.