I finally got around to seeing Uncivil Unions, the locally grown theater production created by Unhinged Productions. I heard about the piece as it was being created, that it was making an effort to give a snapshot of Houston's attitudes about same-sex marriage and I ended up writing about it for OutSmart. You might want to read that article first before continuing.
My main response to the production is that they had a strong cast---I was especially impressed with a couple of the actors who seemed to morph into different characters quite easily---and that as a theater piece, well, they have a good first draft.
It's hard not to like the show. It's pretty well brimming with goodwill and a friendly attitude. It's clever with just enough serious moments to give it some depth, some shadow to the sunshine.
Where it is weakest is in the moments when the actors tell us a little too much about the process of the show. It's almost as if we're seeing a documentary of a show and not the show itself. I felt like they didn't quite trust the audience to go along with the concept and they had to explain themselves or the next segment.
It would be interesting if they might take this draft and edit it a little bit, work on some of the more didactic and explanatory moments, maybe add more material from the interviews they conducted (those segments were really quite strong), and bring it back in a year or two. At the very least, it's successful enough as a theatrical event to hope they create more shows out of community involvement.
It's very much worth seeing, so hurry up and get your tickets for the last three performances this weekend.
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