Presented by TOSOS (The Other Side of Silence), New York City’s oldest and longest-producing LGBTQ+ theater company, Barry Boehm’s lively, smart, and highly passionate new play Our House is currently enjoying its World Premiere at Manhattan’s Gural Theatre at A.R.T/New York Theatres.  The setting of Our House is an Iowa city on the Mississippi River.  Although the city is never named, it is presumed to be Dubuque from the clue of a patch on a policeman’s uniform.  The play takes place entirely in the backyard of the childhood home of Andy (Christopher Borg) and his husband Stanley (Tim Burke).  The two had originally met in New York City.  Andy is a veteran of ACT-UP and is now working as a professor at a local university. Stanley is a nurse. Our House takes place in 2014, the year before national marriage equality was recognized by the Supreme Court.  With that foundation, many dramatic factors come into play in Boehm’s piece before the central plot even gets rolling.  Right away, there’s the exploration of an openly gay married couple living in a Midwest red state, which despite a modest amount of progress in the queer movement, can still be an issue even in 2026.  There’s also the time period: While 2014 may have been a pivotal year for LGBTQ rights in America, increased visibility also caused increased hostility towards the queer community– which, indeed, is one of the central themes in Our House.  In the very first scene, Andy and Stanley have had to deal with the local teenagers pelting their house with walnuts.  Perhaps more symbolically, the troublemakers were aiming at the rainbow flag on the couple’s house– the significance of which seems to be lost on the frustratingly austere police officer (Jon Spano) whom they called to investigate.

That said, the main event that brings the audience to Andy and Stanley’s home is indeed a happy one: The couple are hosting the wedding of Andy’s openly gay nephew Brendan (Cj DiOrio) and his fiancée Eugene (Jalen Ford). As Brendan boasts, “We’ll be married in six states and the District of Columbia!” Brendan and his uncle have always enjoyed a close relationship, much of it do to their matching extroverted personalities.  In one moment, Andy gifts Brendan a rare treasure from his past: his  ACT-UP “Silence=Death” T-shirt and vintage leather jacket.  It’s a sweet moment of intergenerational bonding.  The banter between all four men, in fact, is a fine showcase of light comedy, filled with naturalistic small talk and humor.  However, along the lines of its theatrically spiritual antecedent Boys in the Band, heavier issues are bubbling below the witty/campy repartee in this segment of Act 1 of Our House.  The all-boys’ party is soon crashed by Brendan’s mother Paula (Nancy Slusser), a small-town force of nature whose personality seems too large for the town she lives in.  Paula is very excited for her son’s upcoming wedding.  The backyard party mood is interrupted, however, when Brendan and Eugene’s innocent walk through the woods to the liquor store turns tragic.  It’s a tragedy in which homophobia and racism play a big part.  The aftermath of the incident, which is the basis of Act 2 of Our House, threatens to disrupt the relationships between all five characters– especially as a few revelations come to light.  Will Brendan and Eugene get to see their wedding day?

Our House packs a wallop into its 105-minute running time.  While there is no shortage of humor throughout the piece, largely thanks to Nancy Slusser’s Laura, the play explores many serious themes.  As mentioned before, there is the issue of being openly gay in a red state.  While the piece does not flinch from the issue of gay bashing, it also touches upon many other serious issues facing these characters’ life stories: HIV/AIDS stigma, racism, sibling rivalry, white privilege, and even the phenomenon of our declining Midwest cities.  Most impressively, playwright Boehm smoothly and flawlessly incorporates all these important themes into an intense, highly provocative, and very entertaining evening of theater. Each of these characters has a moment in the show where they get to share some highly personal stories, and each of their stories seems worthy of a production of its own: Brendan speaks about the disquieting feeling of return to Iowa after having lived in a more gay-friendly city, along with the vague but unmistakable “looks” he now gets in the streets of his former hometown. Stanley reveals to Eugene how he and Andy wanted to have a child of their own, but how challenging that would have been at a time when the “validity” of their own relationship was viewed with skepticism.  Eugene, whose very life likely flashed before him when confronted by the same policeman from early on in the play, speaks about how as an African-American, his experiences will ALWAYS be different from his white peers (even his soon-to-be-husband), regardless of how accepting and loving they may be.  

All of the hard-working, energetic actors in Our House are excellent. For LGBTQ audiences, especially gay men “of a certain age” as they say, it is Christopher Borg’s character of Andy who may perhaps make the biggest impact. First off, the playwright deserves kudos for spotlighting ACT-UP, whose contributions to the modern day LGBTQ movement cannot be underestimated.  But most significantly, Andy’s story reveals the character’s long-suppressed emotions (not the least of which is anger) from decades of having to “fight the fight”– and how it’s hard to settle into “contentment”, into even though he is now married and successful, and even though LGBTQ rights have moderately progressed since his his ACT-UP days.  Those suppressed emotions come out in explosive ways a couple of times throughout Our House.  Again, for those of us who remember the days which Andy speaks of, it’s V-E-R-Y relatable.

 Our House is highly recommended!

Our House stars Christopher Borg (2020 Lucille Lortel Award nominee for Outstanding Featured Actor in Charles Busch’s The Confession of Lily Dare), Tim Burke (Naked Boys Singing), CJ DiOrio (Unmaking Toulouse-Lautrec), Jalen Ford (Gratitude at Urban Stages), Nancy Slusser (Menopause The Musical) and Jon Spano (Peggy and Jackson at The Public). The production team includes Evan Frank (set), Ben Phillipp (costumes), David Castaneda (lighting), Morry Campbell (sound), Abby Fry (stage manager), Ken Goldman (producer), Nicholas Reilly (associate producer) and Reesa Graham (assistant director).Our House runs February 26 – March 21, Wednesday – Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 2pm. The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at The A.R.T./New York Theatres is located at 502 West 53rd Street (off 10th Avenue). Tickets are $45 – $70, available here.

Photos by Mikiodo.