InterAct’s 'Ritu Comes Home'

InterAct’s season closer, Ritu Comes Home, written by Peter Gil-Sheridan and directed by Seth Rozin, is a dismal piece of work from start to finish. Its portrayal of gay men as effeminate, alcoholic shopping queens is insulting, and its treatment of the issues of third-world poverty and that world’s cultural acceptance of the abuse of women is offensively shallow. This is supposed to be a comedy, but if a writer has to get his laughs through cheap and easy stereotypes, well, it’s not a show of literary strength.

The story, such as it is, opens with two gay men, Jason (David Bardeen) and Brendan (Jered McLenigan), a long-term couple, planning their next vacation. Jason has lots of money, apparently, though where it comes from is left unsaid, and he is a consumerist snob with a passion for gourmet cooking and shopping at high-end stores. Need I add that he’s an effeminate queen who screams when dirt touches his expensive Persian rug? Brendan claims to be an actor, though mostly he goes to auditions and helps Jason spend his money. Need I add that he’s a screamer, too? In addition, they have a Latina best friend named Yesenia (Annie Henk) who hangs around a lot and drinks with them. As it turns out, the couple has “adopted” a young Bangladeshi girl, Ritu.

Unexpected, unexplained arrival

After half an act of drinking, unfunny sitcom dialogue, and vomiting, Ritu (Becca Khalil) — a young Bangladeshi girl they've adopted through one of those "send money and you’ll get an occasional letter" sort of sponsorships — actually shows up in their tastefully decorated home. No one, including Ritu, knows exactly how she got there. Her intention to stay with them causes a great deal of consternation, so the boys deal with it in very mature fashion — by going shopping. Jason (the one with money) has difficulty with the idea of his perfect life being disrupted, so he vanishes through a magical suitcase. This out-of-the-blue, never explained deus ex machina is about par for this playwright. At any rate, Brendan, Yesenia, and Ritu must cope on their own. I don’t really have the heart to recount more, because it only gets sillier and more insulting as the show progresses.

Given Peter Gil-Sheridan's résumé, I find it astonishing that no one told him that this play is a poorly written, shoddily plotted piece of crap that is insulting to gay people, poor people, Bangladeshi people, and all women. As for director Seth Rozin — I don’t know what has gotten into him with the poor quality of plays he’s picked this year, but he should have known better with this play.

I’m not going to criticize the cast because they were just doing what they were told. But if you look at a video of 1969’s Boys in the Band, you’ll see the shallow, stereotypical caricatures we were treated to then — and now, with this play. There is nothing I can recommend about this play. It is a waste of time and a barrage against any reasonable set of sensibilities.

Seth, you should have known better.