Photo courtesy of Hofstra News
Sexuality can be an awkward topic to discuss over family dinners, and that is evident in the Department of Drama and Dance’s production of “Dike.” The show was performed across two weekends in April, portraying the story of two sisters reunited after two years of separation.
Julianna Kantor played the vulnerable “older sis” Kristen. She’s bringing her new girlfriend to the infamously Catholic nation of Ireland to visit Rachel (Jay Pearson), her younger sister and an aspiring nun.
Instantly, there’s awful tension between the siblings. We might chalk this up to anti-gay prejudice on the part of Rachel, but as it turns out, she has her own sexual hang-ups. More and more, we realize that Rachel only wants to be a nun to escape the fact – or fear – that she herself is gay. It’s a full-blown crisis.
Close to the audience, a couch unfolded into a bed. When Kristen and her girlfriend Charlotte (Gabe James) make love on it, it was often intimate and very funny. Behind them, a small kitchen and a great big dusty bookcase were interchanged. But the pièce-de-résistance of center stage was the stone and stained-glass wall of an ever present and always imposing Gothic cathedral. It was a reminder that, as D.H. Lawrence said, “The cross runs deep.”
Spirituality can be immeasurably personal. For playwright Hannah Benitez – and I’ll bet many others – hanging on to a faith that chafes against a true part of oneself is lonely stuff. As Kristen points out, it’s like there’s a wall hiding her sister from her. And the wall may well be that of a convent.
Rachel wears earth tones and works in a library; she’s staid and repressed, hinted Benitez and director Emily Hartford.
At least one character, Marion (Rachel Morris), recognizes the thrill it can be to peruse books older than your parents. Marion speaks in poetry, quotes Spinoza and, by the play’s end, is brilliantly dressed. She’s Rachel’s crush, and Kristen tries time and time again to get Rachel to confess this fact. The play becomes about two senior lesbians trying heartachingly to get two younger lesbians to be, well, lesbians.
As someone who enjoys questions about my sexuality as much as the next person, I was discomfited by both Kristen’s and Charlotte’s ploys to get Rachel to say “I’m gay.”
Pearson brought such a potent anxiety to Rachel’s character that we were left waiting for her next outburst. With Kristen’s white-hot glances at her sister, I had to look at my shoes a few times because the scene was so sensitive.
While the show’s main focus was the sister dynamic, both supporting characters gave great performances. I have to imagine that keeping up an impeccable Irish accent for a whole show is not as easy as Morris made it seem. James brought the role to life through striking, casual honesty and with lots of humor.
The real brilliance of this drama is the discussion it has around sexuality. In “Dike,” a woman can be gay and free or gay and dishonest. Sexuality is obviously not a choice – but coming out is.
