That’s the wonderfully inconvenient problem at the heart of Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey,” now getting a fresh Lexington staging from ActOut Theatre Group at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center.
Directed by longtime Lexington theatre artist Sherry Jackson Thompson, the production brings Rudnick’s 1992 romantic comedy to the stage with a cast of local performers led by Daniel Ellis as Jeffrey and Wylie Caudill as Steve, the handsome bartender who makes Jeffrey’s carefully planned life considerably more complicated.
Jeffrey begins the play convinced that celibacy is the answer to a terrifying question: How do you find intimacy in a world where sex can carry the possibility of illness, loss and grief? Then, naturally, he meets someone.
Steve is funny, kind, attractive and HIV-positive.
Cue the romantic-comedy dilemma.
Rudnick’s play tackles the fear and uncertainty of the AIDS epidemic, but it does so with an unusually sharp comic touch. Jeffrey’s journey is surrounded by an eccentric collection of characters, including his worldly friend Sterling, played by Marcus Roland, as well as a versatile ensemble that jumps between an array of memorable roles.
For Thompson, the humor is important but so is remembering the world in which the play was born.
'Jeffrey' premiered off-Broadway in 1992, when AIDS had transformed the lives of countless gay men and their communities. Thompson’s director’s notes describe the production as an invitation to look back at that era while considering what its lessons mean today.
And there is plenty of Lexington talent onstage to deliver the laughs. The cast includes Gregory Bloom, Brian Estes, Tommy Gatton, Brad Ulery and Kyle Wade, alongside Ellis, Caudill and Roland. Several performers take on multiple characters, giving the production the kind of fast-moving, playful energy that Rudnick’s comedy demands.
At its heart, though, 'Jeffrey' isn't really about making the perfect decision in an imperfect world. It's about whether fear should get the final word.
Jeffrey wants guarantees. Love, unfortunately, doesn't come with any.
What it does offer is the possibility that taking a chance on another person even when the future is frighteningly uncertain might be worth it.
For Lexington audiences, that makes this revival more than a trip back to the 1990s. It's a funny, poignant reminder that some questions about love, friendship and courage never really go out of date.
'Jeffrey' runs Oct. 2-3 and Oct. 9-10 at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee Oct. 11 at 2:30 p.m., at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, 141 E. Main St. Tickets are $25.
