Unnatural Acts

The Classic Stage Company on 13th Street is presenting this original docudrama.  I saw it yesterday.  It is written by a group called "Plastic Theatre".  They are described in the program as a rolling ensemble of multidisciplinary artists led by Tony Speciale.  Mr. Speciale is the co-author, but his primary work has been as a director.  The NY Times' Ben Brantley didn't care for the play.  One of his issues was with the dialogue.  At times it did seem stilted but that may be because some material is taken from the actual sources of 1920.
I would like critics to at least approach a work with some humility.
The play is about the "trials" at Harvard University in 1920 against suspected homosexual students and teachers.  38 men were charged and 14 were convicted.  The 14 were not only removed from Harvard but they were banned from the city of Cambridge for life.  The play's focus is on the story of 8 students and 2 teachers.  One student is found not guilty and one teacher is found not guilty.  The tragedy begins when one student commits suicide and leaves some incriminating letters behind about sexual exploits with others at Harvard.  The end of the play has an epilogue about the students' lives after the "trials".  It is particularly moving because it includes the two who were not found guilty.  Their lives were highly successful.  Some of the guilty students "disappeared" from the public record, committed suicide, or had fatal car accidents.  The play was supposed to close on July 10th but is still running and has been extended another week because of excellent word of mouth.  It is that good.  It is funny, sexy, frightening, absorbing and tragic.


A few words about the Judge, President Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard 1909-1933.  The Lowells of Massachusetts were if not Mayflower passengers close to it and among the Brahmins of New England.  President Lowell while at Harvard reformed undergraduate education by establishing majors in a particular discipline.  He integrated the housing of the social classes and because of that was called a traitor to his class.  He opened classes to the adult community in the area.  He was a strong supporter of the League of Nations.
He also tried to limit the number of Jews at Harvard and ban African-American students from living in Freshman Hall.  He was overruled in both.  He has been described as "the passionate theorist of democracy whose personal conduct was severely autocratic."  He opposed the nomination of Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court which many considered motivated by antisemitism.  Brandeis said it best about men like Lowell: "who have been blinded by privilege, who have no evil purpose, and many of whom have a distinct public spirit, but whose environment  - or innate narrowness - have obscured all vision and sympathy with the masses."
President Lowell was also the brother of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Amy Lowell.  Her erotic poetry is believed, by her biographers, to have been written for the actress Ada Dwyer Russell.  There is a term used in 19th and 20th century New England called a "Boston Marriage".  It is used to describe two women living together.  Amy and Ada had a Boston marriage from 1912 to 1925.
Amy Lowell didn't go to Harvard.  The family thought it unseemly for a woman to go to college.