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| Adam (Zinovitch) waits for Luke (Traylor) to Finish Praying! |
This Past weekend was my last chance to see the Seattle Premiere of Geoffrey Nauffts’“Next Fall"
which was playing at ArtsWest Theater in West Seattle.
By coming to see it just to compare seeing an All-Star Cast at the LA Premiere in November 2011.
Geoffrey Nauffts’ drama about a gay couple with stark religious differences — one’s a fundamentalist Christian, the other’s a sarcastic agnostic — proceeds with the somber discretion of someone walking into church after the sermon has begun. The play has many humorous moments, particularly when urban wisecracks are pitted against redneck ripostes. But an autumnal light bathes even the comic aspects of the work, toning down the banter and subduing the punch lines.
The LA Production was an ALL-Star Cast with the Playwright, Geoffrey Nauffts as Adam; James (Political Animals) Wolk as Luke; Jeff Fahey as Butch amd the FABULOUS, Lesley Ann Warren as Arlene.
Moving Forward to the 2013 Seattle Producion with Artswest's Artistic Director, Christopher Zinovitch as Adam; David Elwyn Traylor as Luke; John Wray as Butch and Pamela Haines-Ainsworth as Arlene.
Like with the 2010 Broadway and the 2011 LA Production, the Seattle Production were all directed by women. That shouldn't make a difference, but the Seattle Case, the Romance looked genuine and it carried the same issues with the amount of sensitivity.
Adam (Zinovitch), a neurotic New Yorker who falls in love with Luke (Traylor), a sweet, openhearted younger man who silently says grace before every meal (and after Sex) and believes his sexuality is a sin.
