Theater Review - Goodbye girl

The Process Theatre’s Journeys: A True and Comic Love Story makes a much better eulogy than it does a play. Atlanta playwright Evan Guilford-Blake based the work on the friendship of Karen Skinner and the late Wayne Buidens, co-founders of Chicago’s Circle Theatre, where the playwright got his start. Guilford-Blake reveals a sensitive ear for how old friends banter, bond and bid each other farewell, but he handles his characters so gently that Journeys’ conflicts scarcely heat up.

Jerri (Jill Hames) arrives in Tampa to attend the deathbed of her best friend Ben (Jeffery Brown), a gay man dying of an unnamed disease that appears to be AIDS. Journeys nicely captures the peculiar dynamics of the death watch, like the way Ben’s teenage daughter (Barbara Cole), who thinks she deserves to be her father’s primary caregiver, feels territorial and threatened by Jerri’s presence.

In present-day speeches and flashbacks, Jerri dwells on Ben’s fabulousness — how he danced a lot, spoke with flamboyant self-importance and doted on her and her own daughter (also played by Cole). But there’s something disquieting about their friendship and the way Ben repeatedly badgers Jerri into taking embarrassing risks. Journeys wants Ben to be a lovable life force character, but he instead comes across as egotistical and manipulative. Perhaps Brown too often mistakes the role’s self-confidence for smugness, since Ben all but bullies Jerri and conducts their friendship on his terms. Except for one scene at a nude beach, Ben’s moments of vulnerability are generally kept under wraps.

As a drag queen, DeWayne Morgan sings an amusingly campy torch song that gets laughs but does little to deepen Journeys’ conflict. The second act’s themes of mourning and moving on become as repetitive as the production’s incessant use of Ben’s favorite song, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”

Journeys does take good advantage of Hames and Cole, two of Atlanta’s most reliable actresses, who bring out the humor and grief in their roles. But the play suffers from feeling overly familiar. AIDS-related plays have become depressingly common while “Will and Grace” has virtually cornered the market on friendships between a gay man and a straight woman. With good intentions but lacking a sharpened story, Journeys has the grace but not the will.

Process Theatre presents Journeys through May 23 at Dad’s Garage Top Shelf, 280 Elizabeth St. Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m. $12-$15. 404-586-9860.