A heart-wrenching tale of love persisting against all odds, offers audiences a tender evening of great performances and beautiful music
Evan lives in a small town somewhere in the United States. He works hard, with three jobs and a part-time gig singing covers at the local bar. His dad is incarcerated, much to Evan’s relief, and Evan himself was recently released from prison. In many ways, his life is looking up: he has a house of his own, left to him by his uncle, a steady income, distance from his prior addiction issues, but he is lonely. He aches for someone. His penance, he says, for the terrible thing he has done, is to spend his days alone, missing him.
One night, his mother whirls back into his life. A policewoman who tries her best to look out for Evan as a friend drops his decidedly drunk mother off at his house. In this moment the fabric of Evan’s life slowly begins to unravel, revealing the incredibly painful occurrences of the past. Over the course of a couple nights, we see the ghosts of Evan’s past return to him, both to his delight and horror.
Two Come Home is ultimately about the survival of queer love. Playwright Joe Eason, who also plays Evan, cultivates an exquisitely painful narrative that, despite the terror it depicts, is hopeful in its messaging. Eason’s writing is optimistic, flying in the face of all who do not believe that love is love is love. Performances by Ben Maytham (Jimmy), Nicola Goodchild (Amy), James Burton (Caleb), and Hannelore Canessa-Wright (Ashley) were impressive, compounded by the exquisite soundscape that carried the tone of the production. Musicians Cam Southcott (violin), Elizabeth Cleone Hopland (cello), Kirsten Obank-Sharpe (voice and guitar) hovered behind the action, offering an omnipresent score that rippled throughout the play’s activities. Joe Eason’s musical direction is as specific and touching as his writing, crafting a play that is not quite a musical, but one that has a deep relationship to music itself.