The Temperamentals

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More About

• Harry Hay
• Los Angeles Police Department
• Erich Bergen
• LGBT Issues
• Theater

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The term NHI was a code word used by Los Angeles police in their case files in the 1950s. It stood for NO HUMANS INVOLVED, and referred to any cases concerning homosexuals, African-Americans, Latinos or other minorities the cops considered undesirable. In those days of virulent homophobia and institutionalized repression, gay activist Harry Hay (Dennis Christopher), designer and Viennese refugee Rudi Gernreich (Erich Bergen) and their friends, Chuck Rowland (Mark Shunock) and Bob Hull (John Tartaglia), organized the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights organization in the U.S. They referred to themselves as "Temperamentals" — a code word for gays. They also embraced the cause of Dale Jennings (Patrick Scott Lewis), the defendant in the first legal case to successfully challenge the LAPD's entrapment policies. They were a colorful crew: Hay was married for 11 years, and fathered two children before he came out. As a former communist, he was summoned to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and in his later years he founded the Radical Faeries. Playwright Jon Marans employs theatrical shorthand and presentational style to tell a wide-ranging, complex tale, and director Michael Matthews gives it a lively staging, assisted by an able and engaging cast. Blank Theatre Company at the 2nd Stage Theatre, 6500 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun, 2 p.m., thru June 5. (323) 661-9827, theblank.com.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: April 16. Continues through June 5, 2011