The Glen, written, produced, and directed by Peter B. Hodges is a “must see” play. Currently running through Saturday, February 16, 2019 at Shelter Studios’ intimate 60-seat theater, The Glen is one of those productions, due to its short run, that sadly disappears as quickly as it appears. Hopefully future mountings—its writing, direction, and acting are wonder-filled—will keep it alive and kicking. Though the play, with many unexpected twists and turns, was inspired by the life of Hodges’s friend and mentor, the late theater and art critic Glenn Loney (1928-2018), the lead character, twenty-something-year-old Dale Olsen (Matthew Dalton Lynch), as the playwright’s program note informs us, is not Glenn Loney. Dale is only “the character that enabled me to explore questions of identity, sexuality, and family while following a path not entirely unlike the path that Glenn himself would describe to me as his personal journey.” Written in 27 short scenes, the play’s six actors (all but two play multiple roles) cover the life of Olsen’s family from 1934-1954. Jumping back and forth through the years we follow Dale’s relationship with his lenient father (Len Rella) and exacting mother (Elizabeth Bove), his early and later schoolings, his close relationship with his male cousin (Barry Anderson), and his troublesome two-year stint in the US Army as Educational Specialist with Transitional Unit, preparing non-English-speaking inductees for Basic Training. All of the jumping—back and forth from one year to the next and from one location to another—coupled with lots of furniture coming and going in many scenes, can be confusing as to where we are at any given moment. One minute we are at the family farm in 1945, the next at Fort Ord in 1951, then at a boarding house and campground that his mother runs in 1954, the at their farm in Grass Valley, California 1942, Berlin in 1952, and at a bar in 1952. Mercifully the actors, as well as the writing, both so wonderful, quickly bring us back to our senses—that is, once we uncross our eyes. Dale’s relationship with his mother, despite a mutual love on both their parts, is prickly. And it seems to have been so from early on. Why? Well, Dale, something of a wild kid with mind of his own, as young kids often have, always seems to getting into trouble. One of his mother’s weapons that she wields every now and then when she either chastises Dale or is intent on getting her way is to remind him that he was adopted and he has a much better life thanks to her. His hard-working, rule-following mother, beautifully played by Elizabeth Bove, has her own plans for Dale’s future which she continually throws his way. She wants him to stay at home and help her run her various businesses which consist of a boarding house and a campground. But Dale, a mite innocent, but ultimately strong-minded, has his eye on going to college. His aim is to become a professor. There are a number of extremely moving scenes beautifully executed by the actors, all of which hit home. Several are with his mother, two with his cousin (Noel Negly)—their attraction to each other is quite telling, as well as erotic if you mind can travel that distance—and two with his US Army Defense Lawyer (a brilliant Kerry Mantle). The most unusual scenes occur between Dale and Priscilla, a male prostitute in drag, and possibly a spy from East Germany (Daniel Stompor). After several dates which included one-way sex (one is reminded of M Butterfly), the questionably innocent Dale claims during an Army investigation that he that had no idea Priscilla was a man. It seems that she told him she is saving herself for marriage. However, I am not into spoilers so I will not tell spill the beans here. I will say there are a great many surprises, not only in Dale’s strange Army trial for insubordination, his oddly misidentifying the sex of the Army librarian (also played by Daniel Stompor), but in the mother’s long-hidden whopper of a secret—the unexpected coup de grace revealed near the end of the play.
