MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles acclaimed playwright Lee Blessing's new play "Thief River," which portrays two gay men growing up in rural Minnesota who choose very different paths in life. Over the next fifty years they remain in contact; their experiences reflect the changing attitudes toward homosexuality in America.
Thief River opens its Midwest premiere at the Guthrie Lab.
MARIANNE COMBS: Playwright, Lee Blessing, says his original idea for Thief River was to tell the story of a couple in rural Minnesota over the past 50 years. As he thought it over, he realized it would be much more interesting to tell the story of a gay couple and how their lives changed over that same period.
LEE BLESSING: It would have been unthinkable to, quotes, "come out" in 1948, except among an extremely rarefied stratum of people in the major cities. You know, if you're sitting out in the middle of a rural Minnesota. you know, it could be a death sentence. By 2001, these men are in their 70s, and they have watched all these attitudes modify. They're also quite aware of the attitudes that haven't modified and the progress that yet needs to be made.
MARIANNE COMBS: "Thief River" tells the story of Gil and Ray, two men, one openly gay and one closeted. As a young teen, Gil suffers abuse from high school classmates and one night is beaten up by a football player.
GIL: Want to know what Lewis called me after he beat me up in the parking lot?
SPEAKER 1: Not especially.
GIL: I've been collecting them, the names he calls me. There's faggot and fruit and fairy. I don't know why they all start with F. Or maybe I do.
SPEAKER 1: Stop it.
GIL: Tonight, though, you know what he called me? Standing there with the other kids around us, watching me, trying to catch my blood in my hands, Fragile. "That's what you get, you little fragile." He made it a noun. The stupid--
SPEAKER 1: Gil.
GIL: I kind of liked it. Going to get a dog and name him that.
MARIANNE COMBS: After a traumatic event befalls both boys, Gil runs away to Minneapolis, where eventually he leads an openly gay life. Meanwhile, Ray stays home in Thief River falls, gets married, and runs a farm. Yet, throughout all this time, he keeps writing Gil, confiding in him things he can't tell anyone else.
RAY: Dear Gil, I was elected mayor today. Can you believe it? Everybody here thinks I have the perfect life. But I think the only perfect life is yours. Ever been in a city where you don't speak the language? Everybody looks normal enough, but when they start talking-- That's what it's like in my house, emotional sign language.
MARIANNE COMBS: The two men reunite at various stages in their lives. As a result, the roles are triple cast. Three different actors play Gil, and three different actors play Ray.
LEE BLESSING: Because of the way the play moves, we can see them when they're 18, then see them when they're 70, then see them when they're 40 and go back and forth. And I think, for me, anyway, it kind of creates this view of a couple of human lives, almost as though they were landscapes you were looking at, you know. And you have the feeling that you're seeing all of it at once. And you can access any part of it in a sense at any time.
MARIANNE COMBS: Blessing says, ultimately, the men's experiences at different ages comment on each other. He says, while the play takes place in rural Minnesota, he imagines the situations could be true for any part of rural America. Blessing says he hopes audiences realize that, while gay rights have improved dramatically, tolerance is a far cry from acceptance.
LEE BLESSING: This is still a very live issue, and it's one I think that sometimes people are a little too quick to make judgments about. Or they're a little too quick to say, well, it's fine to be gay if you're over there, and I don't have to deal with you. And you don't have to deal with me. But I'm not sure that's a completely sufficient answer.
MARIANNE COMBS: Previews for Thief River began at the Guthrie Lab tomorrow night. The show opens on February 20. I'm Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio.
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