Put simply, Uptown Players’ current production of Perfect Arrangement is a dialectic on the practice of bearding, seen through a 21st century lens. Set in the 1950’s, it’s the story of Bob and Millie Martindale, and Jim and Norma Baxter, next door neighbors and best friends. The reality though, is that Bob and Jim are lovers, and so are Norma and Millie. The two couples have carefully constructed this sham (though fairly painless) arrangement for the sake of actually partnering with their lovers. Bob and Norma ironically work for a government agency that actively seeks out subversives: Communists, activists, “perverts”, and anyone perceived as a threat to the American way of life. When the agency sets out to expose (and ruin the lives of) employees who set off their “homosexual” radar, Bob and Norma must go along, to protect their own secrets.
Playwright Topher Payne has gone to great lengths to make his point. By placing two key characters in an agency that virulently persecutes queer employees, it begs the question of betraying other members of our community for the sake of escaping the ax. Bob digs in his heels, but Norma is deeply conflicted. If they’d both worked for a law firm, say, or an insurance agency, the question of allegiance would be a non issue. Their boss, Theodore Sunderson is chummy with Bob, who is very high on the corporate ladder. Theodore and his wife, Kitty, hobnob with the four of them, which makes them subject to scrutiny. And cunning though their next door situation may be, it also complicates matters.
All art, literature and performance is manipulative to a degree, so it’s not as if Payne’s approach is egregious. It’s to his credit that he makes plain how grotesque and absurd the predicament of being forced to play gender paradigms, for the sake of mere survival, can be. But what we must bear in mind (it seems to me) is the circumstances that led to bearding in the first place. Consider how far we’ve come to date, and yet the suicides, the hate crimes, the pastoral denunciation continues. Perhaps this is the reason for Payne’s cautionary fable. There was a time when (for example) we might see a male high school English teacher married to the Girl’s Phys-Ed coach. In the 1950’s our tribe was made painfully aware of the fact that one slip, one indiscretion, could permanently destroy their future. Cops would stake out tearooms (for Christ’s sake) and print the names of the poor souls they hauled off to jail in the newspaper, for the crime of desperately seeking sexual comfort.
I completely grasp how horribly sad it was to constantly perpetuate a farce. And it would certainly have been preferable for the members of the queer community to step out and mobilize, if they felt moved to do so. We all know those organizations existed, though often clandestinely. All this being said, it’s hard to deny that ersatz marriage could amount to a very practical arrangement. It made it possible to have some access to the sublime, without putting ourselves at risk. How could anyone, today, defend hypocrisy or living a lie? But then, American society has always been duplicitous in the extreme, when it comes to same gender sexuality. It’s not unusual for straight identified folks to “indulge” under the right circumstances, often calling their personal sexual behavior by another name.
The cast of Perfect Arrangement must jump through numerous hoops, as the tone gradually shifts from barbed satire to an urgent plea for revolution and social justice. Director B. J. Cleveland gets them safely past the hazards, while we find our bearings. The acting here is agile, precise and impressive, as the performers navigate through theatrical sleight-of-hand and prestidigitation.
Uptown Players presents Perfect Arrangement, playing August 24th-September 2nd, 2018. Kalita Humphreys Theater. 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75219. 214-219-2718. uptownplayers.org.