Beautiful Thing

Written by Jonathan Harvey
Directed by Matthew Wright

April 22-24, 8pm
April 24, 2pm

Hall Auditorium, Oberlin College

According to playwright Jonathon Harvey, a gay play does not a tragedy make. Despite the slew of oppressed/suppressed/repressed coming-out/staying in dramas, Harvey has managed to write a delightfully lighthearted play not only about the universal struggle of gay teens, but also about the felicity and power of first love. Beautiful Thing takes place in an impoverished quarter of South London, yet its innovation comes from its optimism. And while the gay experience has, in the past, been dramatized by Swastikas and cowboy hats, this play never uses South London as a template for tragedy. Rather, it is a place. It is full of people. Some of them are gay, and some are in love, and they’re going to deal with it. With such unaffected photographic realism, Harvey has created a wonderfully relatable cast of characters to whom, states to the New York Times, “only a theatergoer with an ice cube where his heart should be would remain indifferent.”

Friday evening's performance will be a benefit for PFLAG: Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Read the new Oberlin Theater blog Behind the Curtain with entries from the cast and director of Beautiful Thing.

Tickets

$4 Students
$6 OCID / Seniors
$8 Public

$3 More at the Door

** SPECIAL DISCOUNTS **
Group discounts available for parties of 10 or more. For group discounts please contact (440) 775-8171.

Online
Tickets can be purchased online with a credit card. To purchase click here.

In Person
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Central Ticket Service in Hall Auditorium Lobby.
Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday, 12pm to 5pm

By Phone
Contact Central Ticket Service at: (440) 775-8169 or 1-800-371-0178
Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday, 12pm to 5pm

Hall Auditorium is wheelchair accessible and there is free parking located behind the building.
[Get Directions to Hall Auditorium]

This production is presented by the Oberlin College Theater and Dance Program. 

Artistic Credits

Cast

Production Credits

Production Notes

by Moze Halperin '12

One of the quirkiest and most enjoyable aspects of Beautiful Thing is the character’s fandom of Mama Caas, a 1960’s iconoclast/singer/songwriter who met her untimely end choking on a ham sandwich. But while Beautiful Thing is gilded in the musical flourishes of a bygone era and a bygone icon, it is a realist contemporary portrait of the queer struggle. This lighthearted dramedy very rightly illustrates that despite claims of first world social modernization– supported by the popularity of Queer Eye, “I Kissed a Girl” and words like heteronormativity– “queer self-discovery undoubtedly remains a struggle.”

When describing Beautiful Thing, director Matt Wright is keen on using the word ‘real’ and its myriad variations: “hyper-realism,” “photographic realism,” “cinematic realism,” “extreme realism.” If there’s one aspect he’s absolutely adamant about in this play, it’s under-dramatization. “Coming out is not a tragedy, it is an issue, and will be a contemporary issue until the formality of ‘coming out’ becomes unnecessary. With Beautiful Thing, Jonathon Harvey’s intention is to show real people in the real world dealing with a real issue,” proclaims director Matt Wright.

Though the play was written and takes place in 1995, Wright plans to subtly contemporize it; setting it in the ‘90’s might suggest that Jamie’s is a problem that has since been resolved, and Wright has thus decided to set it in 2010. “Normally speaking,” says Wright, “it doesn’t even enter the average mother’s consciousness that her son may be gay until she’s faced with it as a blatant fact. The reaction is thus very rarely unfazed. And sadly cultural ideas about gayness have barely changed in our American culture since the ‘90’s. The story of Jamie and his mother, in dealing with his sexuality, is still very true to life.”

Explains Wright, “Beautiful Thing is set in southeast London, which is its own world– there’s a whole portion of the Southeast that was co-opted mid-century by the government and there are huge developments of what are called council flats, or government subsidized housing. This area houses a diverse range of people, all of whom have the one thing in common- very little money. This play tells story of 3 families living next door to each other; in each household, there’s an adolescent. Beautiful Thing explores the possibility of how one vast evolution in these teens’ relationships– two of the boys falling in love with each other– impacts every family member.” However, Harvey’s optimism shows that, even when engulfed in a gargantuan cement structure in a neighborhood of uniform cement structures, even when met by stony confusion, fists, and initial disapproval, an unconventional love can prevail.

BLOG: WHY are we doing this "gay" play??? - Matthew Wright

BLOG: What Is The Difference Between Beautiful Thing and Jurassic Park - Andrew Gombas

Bios

Matthew Wright (Director), is an actor, director, voice and dialect coach and theatre educator whose work has taken him across the United States. He has directed numerous plays for colleges and universities including significant productions of: Vieux Carre, A Bright Room Called Day, Dancing At Lughnasa, Three Sisters (at Oberlin College); Ivanov, Brand, Hedda Gabler, Holy Ghosts, Harvey, Misalliance, and 1940s Radio Hour (all at Florida Atlantic University). Professionally, Matthew has co-created and directed three performance projects with The Core Ensemble, a new music chamber orchestra. One of these productions (Tres Vidas) continues to tour internationally since it’s debut in 2001. Other professional directing projects include work at City Theatre (Summer Shorts, 1998 and 1999), FloridaStage (staged readings of Fish or Cut Bait and Bee-luther-hatchee), the Caldwell Theatre Company (staged reading of Fanny and Walt) and The Miami International Book Fair (reduced version of The Cherry Orchard). Matthew has served on the faculties of The Ohio State University, Wright State University and Florida Atlantic University where he headed the graduate actor-training program for ten years. He currently serves as Associate Program Director and Associate Professor of Theater at Oberlin College where he teaches a variety of acting studios. Matthew has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1988.

Media

All media inquiries can be directed to Alex Birnie at 440.775.8171 or abirnie@oberlin.edu