Harry Hay is a Temperamental. You may be a Temperamental, and I certainly am a Temperamental. My sister is, my mother is not and most of my friends are-but today we call ourselves Lesbian and Gay.
While The Society for Human Rights has historical bragging rights to being the very first homophile organization in 1924, it didn't last long. The Mattachine Society, formed by Harry Hay and a handful of dedicated "founding fathers" originated in 1950. It took 26 years for the world to turn from 1924 and the early waves of sexual revolution for people to transform enough that the seeds of change could be planted. And those seeds would not take root, grow or bear fruit for another 19 years.
Hay "came out" as Temperamental, the name for homosexuals in that time of pioneering sexuality. He had always had a sense of being different and, when he became involved in the Communist party, as a very passionate advocate for change, his comrades discouraged him from leaving the party, even though homosexuals were strictly forbidden. Hay may have continued along that one path to change, via Communism alone, had he not met Rudi Gernreich in 1950.
When Harry met Rudi, Harry was 38 and Rudi was 28. Both were survivors, but in different ways. Harry's father felt his son was a sissy and continually tried to toughen him up-to the extent that Hay suffered permanent hearing loss from his father having boxed his ears so frequently. Rudi had survived the Holocaust. When the two met and became romantically involved, Harry had written a paper he thought of as "The Call" and shared it with Rudi. Gernreich immediately called it "the most dangerous thing I have ever read," and thus a partnership and a movement began.
The cast of Jon Marans' play, "The Temperamentals," is small but powerful. We have just five men onstage-Thomas Ryan (Harry Hay), Michael Urie (Rudi Gernreich), Tom Beckett (Chuck Rowland and others), Matthew Schneck (Bob Hull and others), and Sam Breslin Wright (Dale Jennings and others). These men wear the same costumes, with a few costume/props throughout, and the spare quality of landscapes by Clint Ramos, the costumer and set designer, suggest the locations where action takes place, as well as the sparseness of acceptance, and the shadows these creatures must inhabit.
Time runs roughly linearly from the early days of Hay's and Gernreich's romance-and a romance it was, with Hay, the acetylene intellectual, and Gernreich, the charming, softening, brilliant leavening, who often framed Hay's sharply drawn paintings of change for all. Acting as yin and yang to one another, their balance drew a dedicated handful around them, when they both began to shop around Hay's "manifesto". They meet three men, who are as passionate and dedicated to gaining rights and power, for what they recognize as a sexual minority.
What indeed is in a name? Harry Hay coined the name "The Mattachine Society" based on the classic secret Société Mattachine. This was a group of unmarried young men, in medieval France and Spain, who never performed without their masks and were able to criticize the monarchy with utter impunity, a society of wise fools and as secret as Don Diego's alter ego. Society, midway through the 20th century, required gay people to live secreted behind masks of heterosexuality, and it seemed appropriate that people making the change, which would make the masks unnecessary, needed to have their secrecy in order to make change from within the system, as well as from without.
The play itself is written as a demonstration of Mattachine principles, as we see the public personas of each man-Hay was a married man and a father to two (adopted) daughters; Chuck Rowland and Bob Hull could not live openly as lovers when they were lovers; and Rudi was advised by the closeted Vincente Minnelli to marry for the sake of his career. Dangerous games played in more dangerous times.
It is difficult now to understand how dangerous it was to come out at that time, even in New York or California. We now work toward laws to curb violence on the basis of perceived sexuality or gender, but during that time, a mere 60 years ago, the world could stomp the life out of you-quite literally-and you would be seen as getting what you deserved. Differences were not tolerated or accepted, much less celebrated.
The play is a symphony. There are movements in it that are independent of scenic variations and the music that is a part of the action. There is tuned speech in a hearkening back to an ancient Greek chorus, as Harry interacts with the women of his dreams-very different from the women of most men's dreams. And when Harry has his epiphany on differences, the tone of the internal music changes further still.
We have a ringside seat to love and war and the foundation of the movement that would achieve a flashpoint with Stonewall. The fear is palpable when the men discuss what's to be done about the arrest of Dale Jennings, the first man ever to fight back when entrapped by police. It took a great deal of intestinal fortitude for Jennings to stand up as homosexual and resist the trumped up charges. And we experience, as well, the bowels-like-water feeling each of the others felt, when imagining himself in Jennings shoes, wondering whether he would have the guts to stand tall.
Is "The Temperamentals" successful due to the stellar acting of this ensemble of Mattachine players? Is it the play itself that is the thing? I believe this is the rare intersection of living theatre where the experience transcends the sum of its parts to become something extremely special-this rara avis puts wings on the heart and the imagination and will send your burning fingers to read more about the special history that belongs entirely to us Temperamentals.
The run of this extraordinary show, which had a limited engagement, as a showcase production, from April 30 to May 18 and reopened Off Broadway, for another limited run, on June 10, has now been extended through August 23 and plays Fridays through Tuesdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. See "The Temperamentals" at The Barrow Group Theatre at 312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor, and call 212/868-4444 or visit www.SmartTix.com for more information. Tickets are priced at $50.
