Michael Gabiano and Casey Alcoser (Photo by Caros Hernandez)
Reviewed by Socks Whitmore
Theatre West
Through March 15
RECOMMENDED
David Mingrino, Casey Alcoser and Michael Gabiano (Photo by Carlos Hernandez)
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is… Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” — T.S. Eliot [Excerpt from BURNT NORTON (No. 1 of ‘Four Quartets’)]
This Valentine’s Day weekend, Theatre West opened the first production of 2026 for its Writers-in-Residence Series — Incitation to the Dance, a rare and sensual examination of an older queer couple and their search for desirability in age, written and directed by playwright Michael Van Duzer.
Malcolm (Michael Gabiano) is a professor and cinephile with a passion for queer subtext in old films, while his husband Asher (David Mingrino) is an unemployed dance instructor depressed by his own stagnant career. One unexpected afternoon, the older couple’s seemingly comfortable life is upended by the arrival of an attractive but intimidating young gay man: Finn (Casey Alcoser), a go-go dancer and stripper Malcolm has been seeing in private that decides to take his shot at homewrecking Malcolm and Asher’s marriage. In between scenes rife with verbal and sexual tension, Asher and Finn dance duets doubling as a battle of wills while Malcolm educates his film class on the homoerotic undertones of the 1946 film Gilda — underscoring the parallels from the movie’s queer-coded love triangle to the unfolding drama in his own life.
In his playwright/director’s note, Van Duzer shares that the play began as a scene assignment in a workshop expanded over multiple iterations following the fracture of his own marriage. It’s hard to know what is fiction and what is informed by personal experience, but there are generally many good ideas at play and the ending is moving, if a bit messy. However, the characters all around feel a little underdeveloped and in need of some clear direction; Asher’s arc is rather one note and overly apologetic to Malcolm, Malcolm’s passivity in the face of Finn’s “threats” was confusing and unsatisfying, and Finn’s attitude towards Asher is sometimes hard to make sense of. (And a small complaint for inauthenticity from a disabled mobility aid user — when a character uses a cane for a serious leg injury, it would be thoughtful to stage them with the opportunity to sit rather than stand for long periods of time during a lecture.)
Accented by vintage movie posters and sparse shelves, the neo-minimalist décor and geometrically angled windows of Carter Vickers’ scenic design capture the recognizably clean, reserved essence of a financially comfortable gay man’s home. This unassuming backdrop largely serves the story well, though at moments like Finn’s lovely vocal performance of “Put the Blame on Mame,” elements of spectacle or grandiosity are left entirely up to the imagination. (The following spotlight was a nice touch, but perhaps not worth the obtrusively loud roar required to operate it for a few minutes during a single scene.) At several points, clips from film noir pictures are projected onto the back wall; because of the layout of the theater, the best view of these is reported to be from house left several rows back from the stage.
Noticeable about the script of Incitation to the Dance are its intriguing parallels to Tom Jacobson’s recent work Tasty Little Rabbit, a play which premiered at Moving Arts last year depicting two older gay men and their young male lover in 1936 Fascist Italy. Though their cultural contexts and thematic conclusions are vastly different, the contrast in exploration of intergenerational masc-for-masc relationships between artists of different disciplines may intrigue viewers who wish to compare. Jacobson’s style is often historical, complex, and critically engaging, while in Incitation Van Duzer’s voice takes a much more personal, surreal, and sometimes flowery, poetic approach. Jacobson uses photos and poetry to capture the homoerotic male gaze while Van Duzer paints lust like the intense study of a film and jealous seduction as a dance fight made asymmetrical by age and agility. The two works have vastly different relationships to polyamory and the stigma around homosexuality; Jacobson’s characters are drawn from real people exploring sexual freedoms that were criminalized at the time whereas in Van Duzer’s play, these subjects are used as verbal ammunition during a moment of conflict in Asher and Malcolm’s relationship.
Incitation to the Dance has a slightly shaky casing for an interesting, unique story featuring beautiful and emotional moments; with an additional round of workshopping, it might leap to new heights.
Theatre West, 3333 W Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm; thru March 15. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/incitation-to-the-dance-tickets-1975939145174 Runtime: one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission
