“Only Ugly Guys,” an original four-act play by local playwright Kurt Engh following the interconnected lives of four gay men, opened at the Open Eye Theatre last Friday.
Hilarious and deeply introspective, the play centers around the relationships between the four characters as they search for love and connections while navigating the struggles of dating and modern life.
Engh said he wanted to write a story about queer characters that focused more on their struggles than their sexual identity. He said many famous queer stories were either about assimilation or AIDS, and he wanted to do something different with “weird, complicated characters.”
“All of these characters are very out, maybe still struggling with that, but they’re not coming out, and they’re also not dying,” Engh said.
The four characters, Brad, Adam, Ciprian and Dean, are all based on different cliches of gay men, Engh said. Equally problematic and loveable in their own ways, the realistic dynamics and conflicts between them make the play so gripping.
As the four navigate their complicated relationships, the story jarringly shifts between intelligent humor and intense drama. The sudden changes in tone elevate the tension as the play continues, making the later scenes very emotional.
“I just wanted to write this sort of anti-rom-com of what it actually feels like to look for love,” Engh said. “The stakes are just as high for finding someone to love you as if someone’s been murdered.”
The play’s modern-day setting is made obvious by the dialogue, which is full of contemporary slang and pop culture references. Ciprian, played by George Kleven, uses words like “purr” and refers to gay Twitter.
“The script is aggressively contemporary,” Kleven said. “It’s been a really fun challenge because how to imbue modern language with theatricality has been very interesting.”
Each act centers on one character and is stylistically distinguished from the others, a choice Engh said was inspired by his fascination with how people tell stories to their friends. While the entire story takes place over a year, each act covers a different amount of time, ranging from a few months to a real-time conversation of about 20 minutes.
Alex Cavegn, who plays Brad, said they played their character differently in each act, something they attributed to a suggestion from director Grant Sorenson. Cavegn was the main character of the final act, which happened in real-time without technological elements.
“It can be scary to suddenly just take up that space and just take your time and breathe through it all when suddenly, there’s not this soundtrack backing you up, and there’s not these microphones projecting you and it’s just kind of a conversation on stage,” Cavegn said. “It’s kind of jarring at points, but I find it really effective in how we tell the story.”
Technology is an important part of the story. Throughout the performance, text messages, Instagram live videos and YouTube videos are projected onto the stage. Even the end of the third act features a music video-like dance sequence, complete with electronic dance music and rave-inspired visuals.
Sorenson said although technology was a prominent part of the performance, he wanted to make sure the play could still be performed as effectively without it.
“If we got to the theater and the electricity was out, we should still be able to do the play, and it should still maintain its integrity without any of that other stuff,” Sorenson said.
The actors rehearsed without any of the technological effects to ensure their performances were not reliant on that addition. Kleven said he had to learn a “new physical vocabulary” to convincingly act as if he were on the phone, without an actual phone.
“Only Ugly Guys” opened on June 22 and runs until Sunday at the Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. Tickets are available for purchase here.
