VIEWPOINTS – Gays in prison and on the farm: Survival of the fittest writ large in Ned Van Zandt’s LOST IN DEL VALLE and Rodrigo Portella’s TOM AT THE FARM

We all have our ideas of what constitutes gay stereotypes. As an openly gay man, mine were somewhat dislodged when I recently attended Rodrigo Portella’s visiting Brazilian production of Tom at the Farm at NYU Skirball, as well as the return engagement of Ned Van Zandt’s Lost in Del Valle at SoHo Playhouse. As always, read on for my thoughts on these rugged, hyper-masculine nights at the theater.

Iano Salomao and Armando Babaioff in “Tom at the Farm” at NYU Skirball (photo by Victor Pollak).

TOM AT THE FARM (TOM NA FAZENDA)
NYU Skirball
Closed

One of the more anticipated recent performing arts offerings on NYU Skirball’s very busy fall slate was last week’s US premiere of Rodrigo Portella’s production of Tom at the Farm (Tom na Fazenda) (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). First staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2017, the production has since traveled around the world (the global tour continues at the Barbican Center in London this week). The premise is pretty simple — the titular Tom travels to a remote farm from the city to attend his boyfriend’s funeral. But when it becomes evident that his family doesn’t know who he is, Tom must navigate the escalating tension caused by an onslaught of ignorance, hostility, and denial — particularly from the deceased’s burly brother. In this haunted production, Portella pointedly comments on the repression still at play in Brazilian society, namely the ongoing prevalence of the patriarchy and homophobia. But although Portella’s inspiration for his staging was instigated by the social climate of his home country, the vague and shadowy expanse of the production’s visual landscape imbues the work with a universality that can be informed by other instances of repression. At two hours without an intermission, Tom at the Farm is slow-burning theatrical experience. But it’s also occasionally explosive and visceral theater — verbal exchanges are volatile, turning on a dime from deadpan to all-out shouting matches, and the often mud-soaked violent encounters that Tom finds himself ensconced in juxtapose homoerotic sexual desire and physical violence with tantalizing high wire ambiguity. Performing in Portuguese (with English titles), the ensemble cast of four — all of whom have been with the piece since its Brazilian premiere — must be applauded for their unwavering physical and emotional commitment.

Ned Van Zandt in “Lost in Del Valle” at SoHo Playhouse (photo by Lucas Noonan).

LOST IN DEL VALLE
SoHo Playhouse
Through October 16

Given that I had missed Ned Van Zandt’s previous New York run of his hallucinatory autobiographical solo show Lost in Del Valle at SoHo Playhouse (the piece was also previously seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), I made sure not to miss it when an encore engagement (RECOMMENDED) was announced. Collapsing time and space into fragmented flashback scenes from his largely drug-induced adult life, the piece chronicles Van Zandt’s incarceration at a correctional facility in Del Valle, Texas, as well as his wild residence at the storied Chelsea Hotel in New York and his hazy time as an actor both in Hollywood and on Broadway (those of you allergic to name-dropping, be forewarned). Van Zandt recounts how he danced perilously close to death multiple times, tempting fate time and time again until finally reckoning with his addictions, thereby allowing him to live to tell his strange story. Some of the incidents in his eventful life are so outlandish — including candidly depicted gay sexual escapades as a brusque, straight-passing man (there’s very little queer-seeming about the actor) — that they come across with more than a touch of irony, proving that sometimes fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Although he doesn’t quite have the seamless ability to transition between roles like true character actors (e.g., Jefferson Mays or Sarah Jones) — invariably, elements of Van Zandt’s forceful personality find themselves in his portrayals — he’s able to embody the tale’s motley crew with great and apparent affection and nostalgia. To be sure, the work is also a monument to bygone times, places, and personalities. Together with director Amir Arison, Van Zandt has shaped a tight and palpably theatrical evening. Technically, Lost in Del Valle isn’t a solo show — accompanying Van Zandt onstage, is electric guitarist Mike Moore, whose musical accompaniment brings both specificity and atmosphere to the gay actor’s charged storytelling.

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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