by Barbara Waldinger
Reflecting on the first of three productions by the Great Barrington Public Theater this question arises: how do we categorize FRAGMENTS? Playwright/Performer Jim Petosa calls it a memoir: “This memoir is written as a series of episodes. I call them fragments. . .For many years, I shared these fragments as oral histories to friends who had the patience and the interest to hear them.” Many of those friends suggested that he somehow put them together into a whole piece. What the Great Barrington audience sees is a fully-staged presentation consisting of ten fragments and an epilogue, in a hybrid form between reading and performance, then discarded (as happens with memories), directed by Judy Braha, Co-Artistic Director of the Great Barrington Public Theater.
This memoir catalogues the last five years of the relationship between Petosa and his life-partner Raymond Luis Davila, from the onset of Davila’s AIDS diagnosis (1985) to his death in 1990. In the height of the terrifying AIDS Crisis, when the disease carried a 100% death sentence, it took years and countless deaths for the government to even mention it, because of those who considered it a punishment meted out to gay men for their “sexual deviance.” But since so many of those who suffered and died were creative artists the theatre took up the cause and playwrights dared to write works that addressed this nightmare. In 1985 Larry Kramer’s Normal Heart, a Tony-award winning autobiographical play, brought attention to this virus. Kramer co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1981 and the protest group ACT UP in 1987. William Hoffman’s As Is (1985), Tony Kushner’s two-part masterpiece Angels in America (1991), and Paula Vogel’s Baltimore Waltz (1992) all served as wake-up calls. Attention was finally being paid.
Petosa was the director of Boston University’s School of theatre from 2002-2019, continuing on as a full professor through 2023. There he met and worked with Judy Braha. Recently, with more leisure time, Petosa was able to write Fragments. In an interview with Dramaturg Jo Michael Rezes, Ph.D., Petosa, though primarily a director, explained that he could do justice and “serve the audience in a unique way” by performing the piece himself.
Speaking with Dr. Rezes, Petosa discussed a couple of antecedents that inspired his work: one is Spaulding Grey’s performance pieces, in which Grey, seated, told personal stories to the audience. Along those lines, Petosa imagined that his fragments could be titled, put on file cards and dumped into a box. He would randomly choose a card that would elicit a story he could share with an audience. Another antecedent was Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, noting the way in which she mixed genres, broke the fourth wall, and shared comedic and tragic stories of her life with the audience.
Fragments was first presented in a workshop reading at the Becket Arts Center, and then as a reading at St. James Place.
The latter performing arts space in Great Barrington, where the GB Public Theater has held readings and workshops, has now been transformed by director Judy Braha and her talented designer Juliana von Haubrich to accommodate the theater’s productions this season, having previously worked at the Daniel Arts Center, which is no longer available. Four rows of risers are placed on opposite sides of the room, which contains a small stage with wooden steps leading to an open area on ground level which serves as an extension of the playing space. There are a few pieces of furniture —a chair, a music stand for the fragments, and a small table on the stage; a couple of stools and a larger table at the far end of the room on ground level, leading to double doors. Lights from the windows and over the stage remain on so that Petosa can talk directly to the audience.
Petosa’s performance, beautifully crafted and staged, keeps the audience completely engaged for the most part. However, the piece would have benefited by some judicious cutting, lasting 110 intermissionless minutes. Towards the end of the piece, the last couple of days before Davila’s death is so unremittingly painful that it becomes difficult to watch, especially after all that we have seen.
There are frequent talkbacks after this presentation, sometimes with Petosa and Braha, at other times with the addition of guest experts.
Petosa had interesting things to say about the reasons for performing a piece about AIDS now, when there has been so much progress in fighting the disease. First, “as time goes by, our shared memories of the era and circumstances surrounding this journey gradually diminish.” If these stories are not documented, how will young people today, who know very little about this terrible time, ever learn about it? Further, loss and grief are a part of life that we will all face. These stories allow us to think about our own experiences. Petosa believes that “the mystery within these memories creates kinship among us, transforming despair and anger into hope and love.” Petosa proves the point when he asks the audience to share their reactions: they have many stories of their own to tell.
Another powerful argument for remembering this era is the awful question asked by a member of the hospital staff who prevented Petosa from entering Davila’s room: “and just who are you to him?” If the couple was not married and the partner was not a relative, he had no rights. It was not that long ago when gay couples were finally allowed to marry. Just as Roe vs Wade was overturned, who knows if the right to marry will be next?
Lastly, in today’s news we see that our government has cancelled and is continuing to cancel funding worldwide for AIDS prevention and treatment. We cannot be allowed to forget the devastation that this disease has wrought.
FRAGMENTS runs from June 18—July 5 in The Great Hall at Saint James Place, 352 Main St., Great Barrington, MA. For online tickets go to GreatBarringtonPublicTheater.org or call 413-372-1980.
Great Barrington Public Theater presents FRAGMENTS by Jim Petosa. Director: Judy Braha. Cast: Jim Petosa.
Scenic Design: Juliana von Haubrich; Lighting Design: Jemma Kepner; Costume Consultant: George Veale; Assistant Director: Bo Violet Vig; Dramaturg: Dr. Jo Michael Rezes. Production Stage Manager: Kaleigh Cerqua.
The performance runs one hour and 50 minutes with no intermission.