(Photo by Angela Besharah)
Intimate take on Wilson’s play is busy, noisy, and kind of numbing.
by Christian Baines
Anna (Ashleigh Rains) has been living for three years with her Gay (uncoupled) roommates Robbie and Larry (Jason Stroud). When Robbie is killed in a boating accident, his brother Pale (Kyle Labine) arrives on Anna’s doorstep. Pale is angry and unpredictable, but with her friend and longtime collaborator gone, could he be just what Anna needs?
This intriguing setup leads to what’s ultimately a very safe, straightforward play masquerading as a dangerous one. Burn This is full of shouting (Pale), angsty-hand-wringing (Anna), and familiar Gay tropes (Larry). Some of those tropes would have been ground-breaking when Lanford Wilson’s play debuted in 1987, but they now come across as something of a ‘Queer Eye’ era museum piece – undoubtedly beyond their original era, but never quite contemporary either.
