Brandon Maroney as Silo and Steve Hayes as Wendell in The Penguin Tango as part of the Fringe NYC

Two salient facts surface in this year’s gay-themed shows at the NY International Fringe Festival (“Fringe NYC”).  First, there are less than a dozen out of 230 plays, and with the substantial gay/gay-interested audiences, most of these are sold out.  Second, these shows associate “gay” with “victim.”  The hustlers and johns in The Return of the Wayward Son, the circuit party boys in Rainy Days & Mondays, and even the penguins in The Penguin Tango are all victims, often of their own internalized doubts.  And despite the progress of recent years and the Will & Grace-ification of gay life, self-doubt and self-acceptance seem to dominate the thinking of the Fringe generation playwrights.

The Return of the Wayward Son, a semi-autobiographical piece based on author and director Brian Fraley’s years as a male prostitute, features some fine dialogue that shows surprising understanding and empathy for both the john and prostitutes.  All the characters are caught in vicious circles and patterns that create their loneliness; all seek intimacy without knowing how; and all have hopes for their relationships beyond the “service for fee.”  Both the johns and the prostitutes are most often working out or reinventing relationships from their past.  Fraley’s dialogue bounces back and forth or overlaps between characters, apparently to emphasize the hustler’s view of the johns all blending together.  However, this technique distracts from creating emotional or intellectual depth. 

The show layers itself with far too many inappropriate “experimental” techniques and a winning (if mostly irrelevant) extended rock number delivered by an ominous bartender (played by Scot Wright).  Those experimental turns run at odds with both the author’s talent for compelling and natural dialogue as well as the straightforward storytelling.  The plot barely moves for close to two hours but then rushes to its tragic and slightly overdone conclusion in the last 15 minutes.

Life is not much better for the party boys in Rainy Days and Mondays, written by Andrew Barrett and directed by Niegel Smith, which looks at the life of three friends at the mid-1990’s gay Circuit parties in Columbus, Montreal, Miami, Sydney and Disney World.  Drugs, sex, and disco (decidedly not Rock n’ Roll) fill their days and nights.  Each is escaping something:  “nice Jewish Boy” Brian, the recent death of his lover; David, his diagnosis with HIV; and Lenny, the many losses of the past.  There is a lot of very witty dialogue, especially by the “seen and done it all” Lenny, as played by Jamyl Dobson.  Through flashbacks and ghosts (ah, the dubious wonders of theatrical devices!), the relationship between Brian and his deceased lover is revealed as well as previously-hidden feelings each of the characters has for each other.

Author Barrett tries to have it both ways.  He depicts several heartfelt scenes where each of the leads excessively describes the Circuit parties and their nonstop components (the disco, drugs, and sex) as life and gay affirming.  Yet he also acknowledges it corrosively permits the characters to persist in destructive patterns and to avoid dealing with themselves.  But there is a certain unbelievability.  The characters do at least 10 hits of various white substances in each scene without much affect on their conduct, except one slightly nervous phone call and one short, out-of-body experience (played for the laughs).

Gay penguins have it no easier in The Penguin Tango, written and directed by Stephen Svoboda, and based on the true stories of gay penguins in the Central Park, Brooklyn, and Bremerhaven (in Germany) Zoos.  While the NYC zoos are quite “live and let live” about it, the Bremerhaven Zoo brought in several female penguins to mate with the gay couples.  The play has four major plots.  Gay penguin Royalle (ably played by John Bixler) has an electric node in his brain, and every time he thinks of his male mate, he receives a shock.  A sexy Swedish female penguin is brought in to entice him, which raises self-doubts and uncertainty.  An older, long-term gay couple has the nicest nest that other penguins fight to take.  There’s the flirtatious Gomez and her frustrated mate and his nemesis.  And a gay flamingo (representing the carefree, self-centered aspects of gay culture) is brought in towards the end.

At times author Stephen Svoboda succeeds in making this into a screwball comedy.  He’s aided by both the witty, Paul Lynde-style of actor Steve Hayes as the member of the older gay couple (and the play’s narrator) and an over-the-top performance by Andrea Pettigrove as the sexy Swedish penguin.  It’s hindered by its long length and overly-complex (and often illogical and unexplained) plot twists.  Royale changes his beliefs and strategies every few minutes, and various others devise not-so-interlocking schemes.  But the timing isn’t tight enough to make the zaniness work.  It leaves you smiling at the end, yet there’s too much head scratching in the last half hour to keep you laughing.

To the degree that theater reflects our reality, it is clear — whether it’s the low self-worth, low self-esteem, or self-doubt — there’s a lot of work the gay community needs to do.  Whatever battles we may have won or lost in the last decade, the hard work of the internal struggles remains. 

Though the Fringe NYC closes soon, there will likely be additional productions of all three plays.  View their respective websites for additional details.

The Return of the Wayward Son continues until Aug. 25 at the Henry Street Settlement Experimental Theater, 466 Grand St., Manhattan.  Info, go to www.peaceandjunkproductions.com  

Rainy Days & Mondays continues until Aug. 25 at the DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th St., Manhattan.  Info, go to www.ramtalent.com/rainy_days.htm  

The Penguin Tango (recently closed) played at The Actor’s Playhouse, 100 7th Ave. South, Manhattan.  Info, go to www.frescotheater.com  

The Fringe NYC continues through August at various venues. Tickets/Info, go to www.fringenyc.org