Theater Review: Playwright Chris Urch's acclaimed British drama about a young gay Ugandan man in a clandestine relationship receives its American premiere, 'The Rolling Stone'
The more momentous the subject matter, the more difficult it can be to turn it into compelling drama. That lesson is vividly illustrated in Chris Urch's play receiving its American premiere with Lincoln Center Theater. concerns gay persecution in Uganda and certainly deserves credit for its dramatization of a vital international human-rights issue.
Taking place that same year, the drama depicts the burgeoning romance between 18-year-old Dembe and Sam , an older, Northern Irish doctor whose mother was Ugandan. Although they have been careful to keep their relationship secret, Dembe's sister Wummie , who, like her sibling, aspires to attend medical school, soon gets wind of it. More dangerously, Sam discovers the word "Kuchu" written on his bathroom walls and that his phone, which contains incriminating photos, has been taken.
The role of American evangelicals in fomenting such prejudice and hatred would have been a provocative topic for the play to have tackled, but it does so only glancingly, when Dembe observes that the men who broke into Sam's home were "fueled by Americans, evangelicals, infiltrating our churches, spreading the devil's word."
The romantic relationship at the play's center, largely depicted in a series of scenes in which the two men either playfully banter or argue about such things as the existence of God, isn't sufficiently compelling. The evening runs less than two hours but feels much longer, its writing either lacking urgency or going too far in the opposite direction and feeling bombastic. Characters too often behave inconsistently, and the inconclusive ending lacks the necessary dramatic punch.
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