Just out., February 01, 2002, Page 26, Image 26

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U napologetically
adult
W elcome to the world of
a gay Stephen King on acid
by Sarah Leim ert
his month Portland will be treated
to the world premiere of a play
only one company in town is bold
enough to produce.
Stark Raving Theatre describes A fter the
Zipper, winner of the Rosenfield Playwriting
Award and the Live Oak Script Award, as
“an odyssey of an American threesome
attempting to quench their desires and find
happiness in an alternative relationship.”
Like the 2001 film M emento, this controver­
sial piece is not told in linear time, and
events unfold with a dizzying collage effect.
Matthew Zrebski first wrote Zipper in 1993.
Now it finally has found a home and is charged
up and ready to hit the stage.
In addition to being a writer, director,
composer and actor, Zrebski is also the associ­
ate artistic director of Stark Raving Theatre.
Until he submitted his script to the company
for consideration, no playhouse was willing to
produce it. Zrebski speculates the risk was too
great— financially and otherwise— for most
organizations to take on.
But artistic director Jim Wilhite felt that
the story needed to be told and that if Stark
Raving didn’t produce it, no one would. Zreb­
ski has worked closely with director Robert
Tollefson on multiple rewrites to make the
piece strong and relevant.
storY *s based on two men and a
woman who attempt a three-way rela-
J m L tionship. The actors play multiple
characters throughout the performance as they
unfold their tale of the human struggle to
find— and keep— love.
After the Zipper contains many moments of
humor. Actor Michael Teufel jokes that the
play is a love story with the theme “I’m not
gay, but my boyfriend is.”
Humor helps balance the energy of the
script, but Zrebski calls it “a psychological
thriller [that] deals with control, need, sexual
Jimmy. Dan and Lucy are a
triangle pretending to work
identity and religion.” He describes the fast-
paced work as “a very heavy show.”
The title often is misinterpreted as a refer­
ence to sex. Although the show does contain
extremely explicit themes and content, the
author’s intention is to refer to the carnival
ride known as the Zippier.
“It occurred to me that there was a double­
entendre,” Tollefson says, “but it has never
once meant that to me. The experience for the
audience should be completely visceral. It
should be a ridQ.”
Zrebski makes it clear A fter the Zipper was
not written with any kind of political moti­
vation. He says his best work comes from
writing stories without any agendas attached.
“For me,” he explains, “this particular
play— more than being about sexuality, com ­
ing out or the juxtaposition of those
things— is about the result of basing your
actions on fear.” The characters go in search
of what they believe will be a utopialike
existence with each other, but the result,
Zrebski says, is “quite horrifying.”
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tark Raving Theatre, although pro­
gressive, is not necessarily known for
producing queer-themed plays. How­
ever, the writer and director are both gay,
and one of Zrebski’s goals is to draw sexual
minority audience members. “It does speak
to this particular group of people, and I am
very curious to see what they have to say
about it,” he says.
Still, Zrebski is hesitant to refer to it as a
gay play and emphasizes the simple, univer­
sal theme at its core: the human quest to
find love. “There is so much desperation to
find love and acceptance and security that
these people are willing and able to do any­
thing, literally, to find that,” Tollefson says.
“They are so spiritually barren that they will
do whatever it takes to have this feeling.”
The most important goal, Tollefson says,
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Love in denial: a hashing of
internalized homophobic
proportions
He was mine first!— girls and bins have a
hard time getting along in A fter the Zipper