Theater Review: Evolution’s Warm and Touching ‘Gently Down The Stream’ – Columbus Underground

Evolution Theatre Companys 2022 season rolls on with the area premiere of Gently Down the Stream, Martin Shermans touching look at the struggles, triumphs and tragedies of the last half century of the gay liberation movement, in a production empathetically directed by Joe Bishara.

Gently Down the Stream follows cabaret accompanist Beau (Mark Phillips Schwamberger), through a love triangle that turns into deep friendship with English banker Rufus (Jarrod Turnbull) and Rufus eventual husband Harry (Akky Oyagi).

I thought I was getting sex, not an interview, Schwambergers Beau says to Turnbulls Rufus in the first scene of the play as Rufus machine-guns giddy questions about Beaus history he seems to know an uncomfortable amount about, especially Beaus extended period as pianist for legendary torch singer Mabel Mercer.

Theres an interesting tension in these early scenes where the more paranoid of us might think were seeing a stalker situation. Bisharas direction subtly plays out that relatively quickly resolved red herring, while he and the actors tease out the power dynamics of both a May-December romance and the power dynamics of a fan and an artist; how are these similar and where they diverge, what happens when the two intertwine?

Schwamberger walks a razors edge, his character simultaneously flattered by the attention and wary of being fetishized for where hes been, what hes done, and who hes known. Turnbull does an excellent job shading Rufus from a puppy-dog fanboy, desperate to romanticize any past era and vibrate with someone who was there, into a three-dimensional person with his own needs and desires who must as we all do live in the now. When that energy triangulates with the introduction of Oyagis Harry for the final third of the 80-minute one-act, the quiet intensity of his performance shifts everything and adds a balance and a middle ground.

At moments I started to roll my eyes at the Zelig-like nature of Beau hes at the Upstairs Lounge the night of the fire; he dated James Baldwin. But every time that reflex seized me, in the next breath, I was won over by the specifics of the story Schwamberger is telling, by the carefully-chosen, cut-crystal details, and the easy rhythms Bishara and his cast settle into, letting every scene breathe. Bishara also keeps the proceedings (two, then three men, in a small apartment) from getting too static with a handful of indelible images, shifting the Upstairs Lounge story to a video screen atop the set framed as an old camcorder recording, or Oyagi, in a yellow boa, extracting a slow-burn read at the side of the stage of the Gershwin standard The Man I Love.

Gently Down the Stream is one of the best depictions Ive ever seen of the immutable human sense that we understand our lives in retrospect. Its subtlety and warmth reverberated with me all the way home as I sat down to write this. The sharpness of the storytelling, the charisma of Schwambergers narrator Beauregard, and his chemistry with Turnbull and Oyagi made for an incredibly satisfying evening at the theater as well as an excellent example of the kind of work Evolution does so well, and I cant picture another company in Columbus bringing to us.

Gently Down the Stream runs through July 30 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For tickets and more information, visit evolutiontheatre.org.

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Theater Review: Evolution's Warm and Touching 'Gently Down The Stream' - Columbus Underground