Back when I was in college, every coed and a few “with-it” professors were agog over a movie called “The Big Chill.” A defining film for the ?80s, it told the story of how a bunch of free-loving friends gather on the occasion of a dear one?s demise.
Lanford Wilson?s “Burn This,” now playing at the Fells Point Corner Theater, was written at that same time, as Reaganomics trickled down and AIDS began to mean something other than “to help.” And like its chilly counterpart, “Burn This” involves friends gathering, bonding and loving freely as a dear one, Robbie, dies.
As Oscar Wilde observed, art may imitate life. It does so in this case as Wilson, who had lived in an apartment with four others, including a dancer, sets his play in an apartment with four characters, one of whom, Anna (Rebecca Ellis) is a modern dancer.
The lightning rod of the play is Jimmy (Phil Gallagher), Robbie?s older brother, whose love of VSOP ? Very Special Old Pale, a brandy ? has earned him the nickname Pale.
Pale is a tortured Jersey-boy-cum-mob-connected-restaurateur who spouts profanity-laced wisdom, composes “tone poems” in the shower and gets lucky the first night he meets Anna. He channels Kathleen Turner?s character from another ?80s movie, “Body Heat,” as his body temperature is a steady “110 degrees.”
Pale literally burns, and it?s a fire that engulfs Anna, who is quick to forget Burton (Mike Nichols), her sci-fi script-writing boyfriend, who admits, “I never lost anything before.”
But has he lost Anna? Tony Viglione plays Larry, the quintessential ?80s comic relief gay man who eventually plays Cupid, bringing Pale and Anna back together.
Pale and Anna do end up in each other?s arms, but it?s not a happy ending. Their relationship is built on physical need and mutual grief over Robbie?s death. Will these star-crossed lovers stay together or crash and burn like some one-hit band? In typical ?80s movie style, we are left without closure ? for such is life.
IF YOU GO
Lanford Wilson?s “Burn This”
» Venue: The Fells Point Corner Theater, 251 S. Ann St., Baltimore
» When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through April 15
» Tickets: $15, $12 for seniors and students
» More info: 410-276-7837, www.fpct.org
