“I don’t like shadows,” says Ruth, the anguished mother whose son has committed suicide in the play “Facing East.” But on the day of the funeral, Ruth chooses to remain in the shadows of a lie – her denial of son Andrew’s homosexuality.

Ruth and husband Alex are fine upstanding Mormons grieving the loss of their 24-year-old son. Andrew shot himself on the temple lawn as a final statement about the church that both guided him throughout his life and excommunicated him for being gay.

Playwright Carol Lynn Pearson explores homosexuality, religion and family in the hour-long drama now getting a stirring production at Diversionary Theatre. The play probably doesn’t have the impact one might expect it had at its Salt Lake City premiere in 2006, and could largely be seen as so much preaching to the proverbial choir here. Still, “Facing East” has revelations to audiences on both sides of the cultural divide. If it doesn’t provide much sympathy for the anti-gay Mormon (or substitute religion of choice here) mindset, it at least sheds some light on it.

The Mormon Church, which spent nearly $190,000 in support of Proposition 8, the referendum to ban gay marriage, doesn’t officially have a problem with homosexuals as long as they are celibate. “Practicing” homosexuals, though, are ejected from the church.

Scott Striegel (L-R), Dana Hooley and John Polak come to

terms with loss, religion and homosexuality in "Facing East."

Photo: Barron Henzel

“Facing East” opens after Andrew's funeral service is over, the mourners already gone on to the church reception. Ruth and Alex have stayed behind because, as Alex says, “The funeral was a lie. I sat there and let it be a lie. I will not leave this spot until we give our son a proper funeral.”

Alex, a rising on-air personality, has had a change of heart regarding his church’s hard-line stance on homosexuality. The irony of hosting a radio advice show about being a better dad while not supporting his own son has not been lost on Alex. Condemning gays – condemning their son – is “a stone I am no longer willing to cast,” he says. But Ruth’s rigid conservatism won’t allow her to budge from the “gay lifestyle destroys people” mentality. For Ruth, to concede now would seem to render meaningless her life’s work – her family and her church.

As Ruth, Dana Hooley has the difficult task of conveying a sincere moral conservatism that is at odds with the love Ruth feels toward her son. Her mother’s devotion comes across, but the character can easily slip into caricature, and her pat religious aphorisms and denunciations are too easily written off as zealotry. John Polak fares better as the conflicted father, though his radio voice sounds too artificial.

With trees (the audience) bearing witness, Alex – and reluctantly, Ruth – craft a service that’s closer to the truth, through their memories of Andrew. But their inability or refusal to see Andrew’s true self during his lifetime leaves a gap in their portrayal, one that can only be filled in by Andrew’s lover, Marcus, who arrives to say his own private goodbyes.

Through Marcus, we get a better understanding of Andrew’s kindness, vitality, his deep ability to love and his abiding sorrow.

Scott Striegel, as Marcus, brings a measure of lightness to the play. He also hones in on the character’s tone of sorrow mixed with simmering anger.

That’s also the overall tenor that director Marybeth Bielawski-DeLeo gives the play, rather than one sustained note of grief. This provides a measure of complexity, but audiences will sense some contrivance on the part of the playwright to tug at emotions and get across her message of understanding, reconciliation and tolerance. In light of the passage of Prop. 8 and the high rate of suicide among young gay Mormons, it’s a message that still needs to be heard. Now if we could just get those pro-8 folks into the theater…