As I was watching the DC premiere of Anna Ziegler’s inspired-by-a-true-story play, Boy, now playing at Keegan Theatre, there was an Oscar Wilde quote rattling around in the back of my brain (because isn’t there always?): “Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.” While this sentiment is, no doubt, meant to be universal, it’s especially applicable in the case of Boy, in which a compelling and well-researched but ultimately flawed script is elevated by some truly memorable performances.
Boy offers a narrative that jumps between several points in time from 1968 to 1990, with projections designed by Jeremy Bennett to keep the audience in the loop about which era we’re currently in. We first meet Adam Turner (John Jones) outside a Halloween party in 1989, where he flirts with a tipsy Jenny Lafferty (Lida Maria Benson). Theirs is an awkward dance, as one or the other advances and retreats in stops and starts.
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Next, we’re slammed back to 1968, where Adam’s parents, Doug and Trudy Turner (Mike Kozemchak and Karen Novack), have written a letter to Dr. Wendell Barnes (Vishwas), a psychologist who specializes in sexual identity and gender. They explain to Dr. Barnes that their infant son, Samuel, has been the victim of a botched circumcision. Dr. Barnes’ suggestion is for the Turners to raise their son Samuel as their daughter, Samantha, instead and, critically, never reveal the truth to her. This one decision sets off a chain of disastrous events as Samantha/Adam tries desperately to understand their identity and why they never feel right in the skin they’re in.
Ziegler based her script on the true story of David Peter Reimer and Dr. John Money, which has been chronicled in John Colapinto’s 2001 book As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. Ziegler clearly did a great deal of painstaking research, but the narrative itself suffers a bit from this documentary impulse. The playwright does an admiral job of explaining the events and themes at play for even the most unaware audience member, but sometimes takes it to the point where it feels like the script is doing a lot more telling than showing.
In following her desire to show all facets of the story—from Samantha’s childhood with her family and her sessions with Dr. Barnes to Adam’s struggles to form a trusting, stable relationship with Jenny—Ziegler perhaps hasn’t given any one of those deeply interesting narrative threads the time they deserve, in a packed 90 minutes, to fully develop. This has also resulted in some stilted dialogue. For example, during Adam and Jenny’s first conversation, Jenny mentions that “people start to think of you in a certain way” and the weight that this and other lines are given to hang a lantern on the play’s main themes fully took me out of the narrative and reminded me that these conversations were in fact written by a playwright.
Despite these limitations, director Susan Marie Rhea has effectively coaxed nuance from a stellar cast. The clear standout is Jones as Adam/Samantha. Watching them vacillate between a grown man with a secret and deep-seated anger trying desperately to cultivate a healthy relationship with Jenny one moment to convincingly embodying a 6- or 12-year-old girl without the aid of costuming or over-the-top voice work the next, it’s hard to believe that they’re a senior in college. Meanwhile, Benson gives Jenny some much-needed lightness when it’s called for and is equally magnetic in her portrayal of a complicated woman who the world would at large would prefer instead to paint with a broad brush.
Boy closes March 7, 2020. DCTS details and tickets
Dr. Barnes could easily have been presented as an unfeeling expert obstinately convinced of his correctness in all things; instead, Vishwas imbues him with a complex cocktail of scientific distance and a deep desire to be loved by his young patient and respected by her parents. And, speaking of Samantha’s parents, Kozemchak and Novack aren’t given as many opportunities by the script to shine, but they bring some pleasing fullness to roles that are otherwise slightly perfunctory.
The action unfolds on a simple but versatile set designed by Matthew J. Keenan and is aided by subtle lighting by Alberto Segarra. Sound designer Niusha Nawab adds some clever touches, including an interstitial sound effect that transforms at the end of the piece and a delightful pre-show playlist, while Alison Samantha Johnson’s costumes and hair and makeup design help to ground the audience in each era despite the play’s time-hopping structure.
And yet, even with a talented ensemble and deft direction and design, there are issues inherent to Boy that cannot be so neatly overcome. One is that Ziegler raises many questions regarding the interconnectedness of gender identity and biology, but instead of examining them in depth, she instead puts the emphasis on self-determination and the ability to take control of one’s own life. I fully acknowledge that these questions are far more complex than any one-act play could even begin to tackle responsibly, but I felt that the playwright conspicuously glossed over them in favor of an examination of a character finally wrestling back control of his identity.
Is Boy a perfect play? In my opinion, no. But it is an excellent opportunity to see a handful of wildly talented local actors show off their considerable skills while telling an affecting story based on a little-known set of true circumstances. And it’s exciting for this reviewer to see Keegan putting such thought-provoking fare in front of Washington audiences.
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Boy by Anna Ziegler. Directed by Susan Marie Rhea. Featuring John Jones, Vishwas, Lida Maria Benson, Karen Novack, and Mike Kozemchak. Set designer: Matthew J. Keenan. Lighting designer: Alberto Segarra. Sound designer: Niusha Nawab. Projections designer: Jeremy Bennett. Properties/set dress designer: Cindy Landrum Jacobs. Costume/hair/makeup designer: Alison Samantha Johnson. Stage manager: Emily Dwornik. Produced by The Keegan Theatre. Reviewed by John Bavoso.
