Richard Greenberg

Dramatists Play Service (New York, N.Y.)

THE STORY: Darren Lemming, the star center fielder of the world champion New York Empires, is young, rich, famous, talented, handsome and so convinced of his popularity that when he casually announces he's gay, he assumes the news will be readily a

Take Me Out

"A funny and troubling look at athletes and identity . . . Take Me Out is a dynamic, involving play." —Donald Lyons, New York Post Darren Lemming is the star center fielder for the champion New York Empires. An extraordinary athlete, he fills both his fans and his teammates with awe at his abilities and his presence on the field and off. When he makes the matter-of-fact announcement that he's gay, he throws his team into turmoil and confusion, while he also emboldens his closeted accountant, Mason Marzac, to come to terms with his own sexuality—and to fully experience the pure joy of watching great athletes play a sport as well as it can be played. But Darren's announcement brings to the fore the confused and twisted hostilities of the Empires' brilliantly talented but deeply racist and homophobic pitcher, Shane Mungitt—from whose rage tragic consequences ensue. The American premiere of Take Me Out took place at the Public Theater in New York City in September 2002. It will move to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in February 2003.

A Play

Queena Li

Like most plays about sports, Take Me Out is not about sports. It has baseball players, and they play baseball in it, but it is not about baseball.

There were some problems with the pacing of character development. I think the framing narrator, Kippy, began as a strong, enigmatic character. He carried the play's clarity of purpose, he was the message. That was okay because he was a spectator. It didn't feel like a cop-out that he saw everything so clearly because he wasn't actively moving events along. It was not until the so-called climax of the play that I think Greenberg took the easy way out by exclusively using Kippy to make the point of his play. The scene was as satisfying as it had to be to convey the very important conclusion. I just didn't buy the message of this play, and I was so on the way there. Thankfully, I do feel that Greenberg maintained the momentum of everything that led up to the climax scene.

I understand that theatre is a fundamentally different medium of dramatic expression than film, which I think is an attribute that made certain characters feel a little devoid of conviction. Greenbeg makes up for it, though. His incredibly poignant dialogue captures the romanticism of baseball in a way that didn't feel forced while still conveying a message about what it means to look beyond the surface of life's very ordinary activities. The ending brought a sense of relief and exhaustion that I think no one reading or watching the play even realized they were being primed to feel. I thought the ending of this play was perfect, which is not something I feel inclined to say very often. (Kudos to Greenberg for that alone!)

Greenberg opened up a dialogue about the responsibilities and assumptions of meaning-making behaviour that I think is important to our understanding of knowledge, of ourselves and our lives. Lastly, I adored the character of Mason. I will continue to insist that creating an extraordinarily likable character, possibly beyond reasonable comprehension, is awesome.

Take Me Out

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