Live and in person at the Studio of the Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw Ave., Toronto, Ont. Produced by Studio 180 in association with Crow’s Theatre. Playing until April 20, 2025.
Written and performed by Jonathan Wilson
Directed by Mark McGrinder
Set and projections designed by Denyse Karn
Lighting designed by André du Toit
Sound designed by Lyon Smith
Jonathan Wilson enters the Studio Theatre of the Streetcar Crowsnest, smiling, affable and understated. He tells us he has been asked as a queer elder to talk about the gay scene in Toronto in 1979. There are videos of Jonathan Wilson at the center of what was the ‘gay village’ in director Mark McGrinder’s stylish production. Wilson is at Yonge and Alexander Street. Now it’s a bustling area full of high-rises, street-level stores and people on their way to where ever. Jonathan Wilson marvels at the public displays of affection of same sex couples in today’s world.
In 1979 it was a much different time. It was dangerous to ‘be out’ and the ‘gay village’ was a safe haven for people like the young Jonathan Wilson who had left the confines of Oshawa, for the heady word of Toronto and the ‘gay village’. The place was alive with people, full of bars that catered to a gay clientele and the opportunity to be with a community that allowed a person to be themselves without judgement. Jonathan Wilson reveled in that world and in the people who befriended him. His memory of that time was full of joy, fun and freedom.
(Note: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre was founded in 1978 by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti, and Sky Gilbert, with dedicated to “the promotion of queer theatrical expression”. It was also a place where gay-themed plays could be produced without censorship).
Jonathan Wilson also talked about the mysterious disease that was cutting down gay men in their prime. He talked of his guilt at abandoning a dying friend who befriended him. His quiet delivery certainly conveyed his guilt.
The evening is framed with Jonathan Wilson acting as an elder gay man telling those who came after him what the ‘gay village’ was like in Toronto in 1979. We find out late in the short evening from the sales pitch of a slick real estate pitchman, that a condo development, with over-priced dwellings, is going up in the area using the gay-history as background, and the pitchman wanted Jonathan Wilson to act as a gay elder to give context. I thought that framing, and certainly the pitchman, diminished the importance of Jonathan Wilson’s memories he was sharing.
Designer, Denyse Karn has created a neon-lit backdrop of the Toronto skyline with the colours of the gay flag flashed over the back to augment the theme of the condos. At times I found the design and André du Toit’s lighting too flashy and modern for the 1979 scenes. Jonathan Wilson gives a personable, measured performance under Mark McGrinder’s sensitive direction. I just wish the pace was quicker. At times it’s so slow it hampers the flow, rather than showing how shy Jonathan Wilson is in the recollections.
A wonderful irony of the show is that gay-themed plays and solo shows are now ‘main-stream’ and don’t need to go to gay-themed theatre companies to be produced. A Public Display of Affection was developed, nurtured, workshopped and produced by Studio 180 Theatre, a company that is bold, eclectic, versatile and committed to diverse voices.
Studio 180 Theatre Presents:
Playing until April 20, 2025.
Running time: 70 minutes (no intermission)