In ‘Perfect Arrangement’ Gay Couples Maintain a Straight Facade
Perfect Arrangement, which blends the madcap style of classic sitcoms with provocative drama as two “All-American” couples struggle to maintain their straight-laced facade.A decade after its world premiere in D.C., the Lambda Literary Award-nominated play has been revived by the St.
Mark’s Players, “the only active community theater located in the District of Columbia.”The organization is based out of the same-named Episcopal church on Capitol Hill that, notably, factors into local LGBTQ history — as a host for dances of the Mattachine Society in the early 1960s and a meeting space for the Frank Kameny-affiliated Gay Activists Alliance a decade later.“D.C.
has so much proud queer history that it’s easy to forget this was the source of national anti-LGBTQ legislation as recently as the 1980s,” says actor Ruth Sturm, who plays Norma.
Of course, anti-LGBTQ legislators today are agitating and threatening to renew the fight on any and all fronts.Which is why now is as good a time as any to revisit and reconnect with a work like Perfect Arrangement, steeped in LGBTQ history and portraying an era radically different from our own.
