By Jim Farmer, Southern Voice
Process Theatre’s fall double feature is a truly gay affair. The company is staging both Topher Payne’s gay romantic comedy “Relations Unknown” and gay playwright Charles Busch’s campy cult favorite “Lesbian Vampires of Sodom.”From its inception in 2002, the company has always shown a willingness to tackle gay fare. Dewaye Morgan, Process Theatre’s artistic director, is gay, as is roughly half of the board, he estimates. Playwright Payne is gay, too.
Both shows have been staged before by Process, but Morgan felt the time was right to bring them back. “Lesbian Vampires of Sodom” is being presented this weekend — as well as Monday, Halloween night — while “Relations Unknown” gets a four-week run.
“Relations Unknown” is about seven men and women, all Atlanta transplants, and how their lives eventually intersect.
“What I love about the show is that it says you can create your own family. All the characters in the play, they lose a friend but can create a community of who’s left,” Morgan says.
Payne says his play explores “a group of people trying hard to handle life on their own.”
“They are forced to rely on each other because of a whirlwind of events, but they are hesitant to do so,” he says.
“RELATIONS UNKNOWN” IS certainly a personal show for Payne, an occasional columnist for David magazine, a publication affiliated with Southern Voice. One of the characters gets sick in the play, and Payne was diagnosed with cancer a while back. But he feels he is a different person now — and the show is different as well.
“When I wrote it I was still going through cancer treatment, going through my own mortality. Looking back it was an optimistic play but not a realistic one. It’s changed from the kind of play you write when you think you are dying to the kind of play you write when you are living,” Payne says.
He admits that the versions are wildly different.
“Lord, it’s changed,” he says. “I took out a romantic interest and introduced Lou. She is a lesbian pot dealer on a mission from God. Once Lou was there the show changed. It gave me room to play.”
Also different is the setup.
“In the first version the breakups and trauma had happened seven years ago. Now, these things have happened 20 months ago and many of the characters are not on speaking terms. They hate each other,” Payne says.
Payne definitely feels he has grown as a playwright, especially since he wrote his first play, “Beached Wails.”
“In terms of craft, I’ve found my voice as a writer,” he says. “The comedy I write now comes from another place. When I re-did ‘Relations Unknown,’ I took away the jokes that sounded like sitcom jokes. I wanted them character-based.”
Earlier this year, Process staged a double feature of Marki Shalloe’s “The Suicide Manual” and Payne’s “Bad Mama,” which featured a funny take-off of Lifetime TV movies and a Judith Light-type character. “Bad Mama” will debut off-Broadway next season, as will another of Payne’s shows, “Above the Fold.”
OF ALL THE SHOWS Process has staged, “Relations Unknown” is among those the troupe was most excited about doing anew.
“We loved ‘Relations Unknown’ the first time we did it,” Morgan says. “It was well-received but it could only run for three weeks at the Top Shelf theater [at Dad’s Garage]. We all had a great time and have had many requests to bring it back. We all told ourselves that once we got more established, we’d do it again for a longer run.”
The restaging has many of the same performers, although a few are switching roles this time.
The return of “Lesbian Vampires” also boasts many of the original cast members. Both plays are directed by Morgan, and Payne has multiple roles in “Sodom.”
