The program at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 3 is a retrospective of the PYPF's five seasons. The four plays, judged among the best submissions in previous years, are directed and performed by local professionals, and before they were staged originally at Temple, the student writers had worked closely with their teachers and experienced playwrights. That close attention has produced plays that have a professional sheen and productions that bring out the best in the works while glossing over some of the defects that plays by neophyte writers are bound to exhibit.
All the plays have their merits, but the final offering, Sweet the Nails by G. Patrick Jackson, is outstanding. An eloquent, sincere and truthful play about a boy's coming to terms with the fact that he is gay, it was written while Jackson was a senior at Friends Central School.
In the long one-acter, Chris, the 17-year-old protagonist, reviews the treatment he has received over the years from taunting school chums, and his strained relationship with his conventional family. The focus, though, is on his relationship with his only friend, Peter, his defender and confidant, whose doubts about his own sexuality are resolved in the play's most searing scene. The culmination of the friendship makes Chris realize, in an affirmative and moving concluding monologue, that, while his sexuality sets him apart from his family and others, it also frees him to lead a new life on his own terms.
Jackson is honest in his portrayal of Chris. Although we can sympathize with the persecution and lack of understanding he encounters, he is himself demanding, manipulative and deliberately provoking. As written and in Peter Pryor's very natural, very fine performance, Chris is a thoroughly believable character.
