“I helped David to die” was, as I remember it, my last line as Sally in Terrence McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart”, a woman who brings her husband, her sister-in-law and her husband, (her one-time lover) to spend a summer weekend at her late brother’s summer home on Fire Island before they sell the property. A play about coming to terms with the death of the life we wanted and fear of the life we have – or not.
Well isn’t that just like today? The brilliance and heart of Terrance McNally have been taken from us by the fucking coronavirus, an illness we do not understand and want to imagine we cannot contract.
Well isn’t that just like the past?
My dear friends, who worked on the original production of “Love! Valor! Compassion!” made it possible for me to see it while visiting NYC more than 25 years ago – when AIDS was the enemy of all gay men and its shadow separated them from society through fear and ignorance. It was pure, heartbreaking delight.
Terrence McNaly’s words helped bring to life the reality of the inner strength of women in a world that dismissed them as anything but essential in “Ragtime”. His brilliance shown a spotlight on the life of Maria Callas in “Masterclass” and his imagination gave Ms. Rivera a final, glorious star turn in “Kiss of the Spider Woman”. My last true interaction with Mr. McNally’s work was in counterprotest to “christians” protesting his work, “Corpus Christi” which had me walking circles with the likes of Wallace Shawn and Ron Rifkin in support of Mr. McNally’s words – as well as the First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights (which given its full text, made the christian protests that much more comical).
Over and over again, he dropped our innermost dreams and monsters center stage and dared us to look away. I am furious that COVID-19 finally did what AIDS could not do – take this prolific treasure from us. While we know that it would have been something, some day – because we will all take our last curtain call in some way; the theatrical tragedy that put Mr. McNally in the line of coronavirus fire is as ironic as any line he ever wrote.
While I cannot know what awaits any of us on the other side of this Light – I can imagine the Welcome Home party that is being thrown in the great universe where those taken from us all too soon gather to thank him for giving them voices beyond heartbeats.
Damn – this cut is deep, this grief is stunning. What great gifts he leaves behind.
Ahhhhh, I am heartbroken. I did not know. I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT HIM LAST NIGHT and AGAIN TODAY — with two different people. The ripple from his spirit is far-reaching in so many ways. Thank you for these words. This light has gone to shine on other shores. Our great, great loss.
He was a current flowing beneath so many great moments and matches made in the American theatre.