LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
David Drake Kisses the Silver Screen |
by Mubarak Dahir |
Playwright and actor David Drake (whose credits include movies such as Philadelphia, Longtime Companion and It's Pat; television shows such as Law & Order and The Beat; and Broadway performances such as the revival of The Boys In The Band) premiered his Obie-winning play, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, in 1992. Most of us like to think things have changed dramatically for gay and lesbian people since then. Neither AIDS nor homophobia, the two forceful topics of his piece, have been cured. But both seem at least to have been somewhat mitigated. People with AIDS are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. And gay and lesbian visibility and political clout have reached an all-time high. Now, Drake has turned his epic play into a feature film. As it tours the country, playing gay and lesbian film fests from New York to Los Angeles as well as screening in art-house movie theaters, the piece reminds us that while so much has changed, so much has remained the same, too. Plans are in motion to have CAMP Rehoboth's support in bringing The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me and David Drake to the Third Annual Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival in November. Just back from a trip to Romaniawhere he was researching material for his new playDavid Drake sat down over steak and eggs at a Chelsea diner to discuss his film and the messages it still carries. MD: Why was it important to you to make The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me into a film? David Drake: Films can reach people where I physically cannot get to. I was done performing it, but it never felt finished because it wasn't preserved on film. You mean as part of a record of gay historical experience? Yes. My work is imbued with a sense of history. I like the connective tissue of historyhow this person, place or event connects to another person, place or event, and how that connects to each of us. It puts us all into context with each other and the things happening around us. The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me captures a certain energy and time for gay and lesbian culture. And a sense of history is particularly important for a people whose history has often been denied us. But as you look at some of the acts, you find the action there is still happening today, like in the monologues "Why I Go to the Gym," or "12-Inch Single" [the title of a gay man's personals ad]. I could have written that yesterday. The search for love is still the same. What's different in the message of the film today, compared to when the play debuted eight years ago? Certainly a lot has changed around both AIDS and gay politics. When it was written, there was a very tangible threat of death. And there was also a political battle going on: access to drugs, trying to change the policies of federal agencies in order to have quicker solutions to prolong life. So there was a lot of urgency involved. We've made some headway since then, certainly medically, but also politically. Regardless, AIDS is still very much here. I think the movie fills a social void that is going on right now around that topic. Are you saying there is a lack of discussion about AIDS? Oh, yes. A lot of the media look at AIDS and they say "Oh we've done that story." And the protease inhibitor chapter of the HIV narrative put a conclusion on this story for them. Even gay people want to do that in some ways, because it's uncontrollable, it feels beyond us. I understand that emotion. Living with a deadly disease in your environment is very difficult. And AIDS is an uncomfortable area of activism today. It's not a glamorous area. It's very difficult, following drug companies and following tests and treatments. It's slow and it's got big, technical words that don't make any sense. And we see all these ads for the new drugs, and we are tempted to say OK, now there's a product that fixes that, it's over. But of course the truth is, it's not over. It's ongoing. I view art as vital to the social dialogueculture and politics. I'm all for gay romantic comedies. But I need more substance than that in my pop culture diet. So I hope very much my movie will be one of the tools that keep people talking about things like that, especially in an election year. In the past ten years, there has been incredible progress politically, socially, culturally. Has that trivialized gay art, or has it normalized it? There's a lot more visibility today, but so much of that is TV characters. And I still think it is the real openly gay people that make the big difference. Sitcom characters are two-dimensionalwhether they are gay or black or Asian. It's a comfort food, to watch Will and Grace, or one of those TV shows with a gay character. It's like a treat to sit down and indulge for half an hour in gay sitcom jokes. But I hope for more. I am longing for openly gay men. What made Ellen really funny to me was that I knew she was gay, and she was playing gay. It made the jokes funnier, it made the romance sweeter. It made her that rare hybrid of character and personality. I miss that on the male end. Men are still trapped by fear. What about theater and film, compared to TV? It's still not living up to what it should be. I read a lot of scripts and so many of them are all about gay romantic comedies. We're playing out the same narratives that straight people do. And I'm not sure if we're adopting them or if that really is a reflection of our lives today. Unfortunately, AIDS is still being left out of the narrative, but it's not because it's not there. I think culturally we are in a very conservative time, even on levels like gender-conformity. I mean, women movie stars are back to being Barbie Dolls. So it's not a surprise that so much of what we see in gay theater is the tried and true romantic comedy. You re-wrote the ending of the film to update it, setting the date in the year 2017 and adding current pop culture and political references. Can you talk about the ending, and its message? For the ending, "The Way We Were," I was looking for a way of showing heroic arcs in our lives. It's like in mythology, the soldier goes out to confront the dragon that is threatening the city, slays the dragon and comes back with its head, and says "We are saved." And they live happily ever after. And I thought it was so important to do that, because gay and lesbian people are so rarely offered a vision of the future where they win. Do you think we are "winning?" Yes, I do. I look at things like what's happening in Vermont with civil unions and I believe we are moving there. It may not be a revolution, like in the film. It may be more piece-meal hope. But it is happening. And I believe if you keep fighting, you win. So I wanted to give that message of hope to the audience. Hope is really important. The most generous thing a writer can give the audience is hope for their own lives. And I believe it is going to happen for us. There will come a day when the struggles around homophobia are over. Mubarak Dahir receives email at MubarakDah@aol.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 9, July 14, 2000. |