THE HOME ‘STRAIGHT’
By Kevin Duggan They are queens of the road!
A new play follows
a group of female and
genderqueer characters who go on
a cross-country road trip in the
aftermath of the 2016 presidential
election. “The Straights,”
which opened this week at Jack
theater’s new location in Clinton
Hill, subverts the typical maledominated
road trip genre —
exemplified by beatnik author Jack
Kerouac’s “On The Road” — by
showing the struggle of queer
people in the year after the election
of Donald Trump, according to its
director.
“It’s about how do we create
a community and survive and
stay strong through that,” said
Will Detlefsen. “It’s a play that
centers queer people of color,
specifically not men. That felt
special when most road trip stories
are dominated by men, such as ‘On
the Road.’ ”
In the first half of the twohour
play, written by Taylor
Adamson, the three characters set
out on a journey of lighthearted
shenanigans, including
hitchhiking, drugs, shoplifting,
and selfies, while also reflecting on
the trends and then-new outrages
of the early Trump administration.
“We think of it as a period piece
set in 2017, because that year there
was this melancholy cloud above
it all,” Detlefsen said. “There was
the travel ban, the White House’s
COURIER L 52 IFE, DEC. 6-12, 2019
LGBTQ website was being taken
down — it felt very threatening.”
In the second, darker part of
the play, the characters reach
their destination and have to
deal with serious issues that test
their relationships — the details
of which are spoilers, said the
director.
The play’s title is layered with
meanings, including the straight
and open road, the heterosexual
tropes associated with the road
trip genre, and a reference to
the protagonists’s drug use and
not being “straight-edge” sober,
according to Detlefsen.
The show is part of Jack’s first
season in its new performance
space on Putnam Avenue, which
opened in September. The venue’s
directors signed a 10-year lease
on the new, larger space, after
seven years at their previous digs
just four blocks away. The new
space lets the arts group deepen
its connection with the brownstone
Brooklyn neighborhood and
provide an art hub for longtime
residents and newcomers, said one
of the group’s directors.
“We can really settle in and
continue and invite the folks back
who have been to our previous
space,” said Alec Duffy. “We
offer a crossroads for people of
different backgrounds, people
who’ve lived in the neighborhood
for a long time as well as people
who have just moved in, offering
a channel for exchange which we
think is critical for a more vibrant
city.”
“The Straights” at Jack 18
Putnam Ave. between Grand
Avenue and Downing Street in
Clinton Hill, www.jackny.org.
Dec. 6-21 at 7:30 pm. $20.
By Bill Roundy Seize the play!
If living in New York has
taught me anything,
it’s not to wait. You
never know when
your favorite bagel
shop or Broadway
show will close,
so you need to
get out there and
enjoy it while
you still can. This
week, we have four
shows that we know are
ending soon, so you should
get on them now.
Friday night you can take
an international head trip with
“Barber Shop Chronicles,” a play
set in seven barber shops across
the world. The show, running at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s
Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.
between Rockland and Ashland
Places in Fort Greene, www.bam.
org) through Sunday afternoon,
skips from Johannesburg to
London, showing the similarities
and differences in how black men
communicate with each
other while in an allmale
space in each
country along the
way. The show
starts at 7:30
pm tonight, and
tickets start at
$35 (going up to
$95 for the front
rows).
S a t u r d a y ,
head to the Brooklyn
Museum (200 Eastern Pkwy. at
Washington Avenue in Prospect
Heights, brooklynmuseum.org)
for its monthly First Saturday
party, when everyone gets in
free! The night’s theme is “Best
of Brooklyn” and there will be
plenty of poetry, music, and drag
performances happening all
over the museum. But we are
here for two exhibits: the queer
art show “Nobody Promised
You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years
After Stonewall” and an exhibit
of New York City photographer
“Garry Winogrand: Color,” both
of which close on Sunday. Free
admission starts at 5 pm, and
you can peruse the galleries until
11 pm.
Finally, on Sunday you should
travel into the urban jungle of
Williamsburg to head “Into the
Woods!” The Brooklyn Theatre
Club’s staged reading-style
performance of the fractured
fairy tale musical will have its
second and final production at 3
pm at the Knitting Factory (361
Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer
Street in Williamsburg,
bk.knittingfactory.com). The
major roles are already taken, but
minor chorus parts are open to the
audience — and non-singers can
find stardom in the central role
of Milky White the Cow! Tickets
cost $16.
By Kevin Duggan Brooklyn’s hottest
courtroom drama is
back on the stage!
As famed New York injury
attorneys Ross Cellino and Steve
Barnes head to court early next
year to settle their long-running
legal battle, a play satirizing
the law hawks’ bitter feud will
return to a Gowanus stage for
one night only on Jan. 4
“It’s interesting timing,” said
David Rafailedes, who stars as
Barnes in “Cellino v. Barnes.”
Rafailedes and co-star
Michael Breen, who plays
Cellino, penned their script
based off of news reports
detailing the feud between the
New York law partners, whose
names are synonymous with
kitschy TV ads thanks to their
very catchy jingle.
Cellino filed a lawsuit in
2017 to start his own firm after
a series of disagreements, and
the attorneys are set to return to
state appellate court on Jan. 14,
the Buffalo News reported.
And Cellino also made
a recent, out-of-court jab at
Barnes with an online video
touting “the new team of Cellino
and Bobbi” — a reference to
a charitable partnership he’s
formed with Queens animal
shelter Bobbi and the Stray —
that was eerily reminiscent of the
iconic advertisements that urges
viewers, “Don’t wait, call 8!”
“Ross Cellino and his family
have found a partner — and it’s
shelter animals,” the video on
the nonprofit’s website says.
Rafailedes and Breen
performed their sold-out show
in Brooklyn last August, and
have since taken their show on
the road, attracting audiences
that included real-life Cellino
and his mother at the lawyer’s
hometown of Buffalo, New
York.
“He felt a lot of people
looking at him, but he had a
really good time and gave it
10/10 stars — which is not how
you rate a play, but we’ll take
it,” Breen said. “His 86-yearold
mother saw it and didn’t
appreciate the profanity but she
liked the show.”
Barnes’s children have come
to a show but the man himself
has shown little interest,
according to Breen.
The actor talked to Cellino
after their recent show, who
told him that their fictionalized
retelling was actually pretty
close to the real story.
“Obviously we take it to
an extreme, but he confirmed
that we weren’t too far off,”
he said.
“Cellino v. Barnes” at the
Bell House 149 Seventh St.,
between Second and Third
Avenues in Gowanus, (718)
643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.
com. Jan. 4 at 7:30 pm. $15.
Catch these shows while you can!
SECOND APPEAL
The Cellino and Barnes
break up play returns
But not narrow: New play “The Straights,” at Jack theater through Dec. 21, tells
a road trip story of two women and a non-binary person after President Trump’s
election. Photo by Will Detlefsen
A play about the high-profile break up of injury attorneys Cellino and Barnes
returns to the Bell House on Jan. 4. Photo by Andrew Breen
Queer road trip play debuts at Jack’s new space
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