Family matters
‘Facing East’ explores Mormon attitudes toward homosexuality
07/24/2008
In an intense exploration of the Mormon faith and its attitudes toward homosexuality, Carol Lynn Pearson’s “Facing East” opens at an open grave as a Mormon mother and father grieve for their twentysomething son.
The mother Ruth (Toni Trenton), is rigid in her belief that homosexuality is a sin. Yet her husband, Alex (Neil Miller), exclaims, “I need a funeral that speaks the truth,” and no mention was made during this service that their son, Andrew, was gay and had committed suicide.
Hidden truths not only shadow their son, but also their marriage. Alex had been in love with another woman who broke up with him, only to send a letter asking to return, a letter that his mother kept from him until his honeymoon with Ruth.
Because of his lost love, he seems more sympathetic to the issues that his son faced, while Ruth seems to cling to the Mormon tenets as the only thing that gave her marriage meaning once she realized her husband loved another woman more than her.
From what we learn about their son, he tried to suppress his attraction to men. Then we meet Marcus (Jonathan Edward Brown), who visits the grave with a bouquet of long-stem red roses, believing that the rest of the funeral party would long have gone to the reception.
Pearson’s script could be more focused, although grieving people are rarely organized in their thoughts and narration. Pearson herself was married to a Mormon and bore four children before she divorced her husband, who was gay. He eventually died of AIDS in her home, and the issue of homosexuality is obviously a deeply personal one.
This moving production raises many questions that are especially pertinent in California with the legalization of same-sex marriages and the movement to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting them.
“Facing East” continues through Aug. 3 at the Stillspeaking Theatre, 2560 Huntington Drive, San Marino. For more information, call (626) 292-2081 or visit www.stillspeakingtheatre.org.
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