ou might go to see Pygmalion Productions’ regional premiere of “Snakebit” out of appreciation for finely wrought theatrical works that explore stress points in human relationships and how this fraught architecture we call friendship frames deeply personal decisions.

The new theater company Pygmalion’s excellent cast deserves much of the credit for the play’s realness, delivering their characters’ breakdowns with the spontaneity and frailty that proves difficult after hours of rehearsal and memorization.

	The Pygmalion Productions Theatre Company made its debut in Salt Lake City with "Snakebit."

On the other hand—and without downplaying your interest in fraught relationships and whatever—you might want to see “Snakebit” simply to experience firsthand the product of an artist who was nominated for a Tony award for his portrayal of the struggles of a Mormon homosexual in one of modern theater’s most groundbreaking works, Tony Kushner’s poignant “Angels In America.”

Actor-turned-writer David Marshall Grant, who wrote “Snakebit,” his first play, in 1999, also starred opposite Kevin Costner in the film “American Flyer,” appeared in “The Rock” and “People I Know” and cruelly tormented all-American conservatives by playing a gay man on the TV series “thirtysomething.” One episode, showing a scene in which his character lies in bed talking with another man, prompted protests and the show’s major advertisers pulled out (definitely no pun intended).

The play received the 1999 Drama Desk and Critics’ Circle nominations for best play. The script seems to draw at least partially on his vicarious experience of homophobia, gained through personal involvement with gay character roles and their authors, and through public reactions to his portrayals of gay men.

Grant writes that “Snakebit” is “…about the shifting ground on which we lay our assumptions and conceits. It’s about that moment in life when one decides to be courageous. Or not. Mostly, it’s about two men and a woman who love each other very much.”

The love between “Snakebit’s” three primary characters is strained to several breaking points during one weekend from hell. In fact, the plot takes place entirely in one living room and is wholeheartedly dialogue-driven, inviting the inevitable consideration that hell is other people.

But although the male characters are ostentatiously stereotypical and the plot is driven by explosive dirty secrets from the past that could rival those of daytime TV, the fresh, painfully real dialogue of “Snakebit” lends it an honesty that rescues it from the realm of convention.

Its male characters, best friends from childhood—one gay saint, one straight asshole—are raised from the mire of stock characters to aptly play out a fascinating study of the dynamics of male relationships. This commentary on contemporary masculinity is the play’s driving force and best asset.

Michael, a former ballet dancer, is preparing to move out of his house after his partner leaves him for a younger man. Jonathan and his wife Jenifer are visiting for the weekend while Jonathan auditions for a big role in a Hollywood action film.

Michael’s job as a social worker is jeopardized when he gets involved emotionally in one of his cases, an abused young girl. He’s also dealing with obstacles to adoption and the lingering specter of the AIDS epidemic. Jonathan is busy ignoring Michael, climbing socially, dismissing his wife and increasingly ill daughter, who’s left at home, and asserting that he would love to be gay so he could understand his partner, have sex without consequences and never be expected to be sensitive.

Their interaction exhibits Grant’s extraordinary ear. His script leaves intact the messy frantic qualities of real conversations carried out under extreme pressure.

The appeal of “Snakebit” is that Jonathan says what he shouldn’t, Michael never makes the best case for himself and Jenifer makes no attempt to defend herself—the kind of failures we experience in unscripted conversations about our own relationships. So when the play ultimately proposes that other people are not our hell, but our salvation from ourselves, we may believe that, too.

Pygmalion Productions Theatre Company presents “Snakebit” at the Leona Wagner Black Box Theatre, in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, through Nov. 2. Tickets can be purchased through ArtTix at 355-2787.
rachael@red-mag.com