Dirty Secrets

A smart, gender-bent thriller that pokes fun at brainless gay stereotypes.

Dirty secrets is a smart, gender-bent thriller that pokes fun at brainless gay stereotypes. Right from the opening scene you know you're watching a play about homosexuals. Instead of boring us with platitudes about the evils of pigeonholing people, the characters skewer stereotypes by spouting earnest lines like "you don't act gay, you're masculine!" its all about tom, who shows up at the home of nick and shane, a gay couple who live in manhattan. Tom is depressed because he's just discovered that his lover of eight years has had sex with another man. He doesn't tell nick the the other man is shane. It turns out that tom has come to torture shane, to seek retribution for his messed up romance. It's the ways in which tom carries out his revenge -- first demanding sex with shane, later seducing nick -- that move the play along. He has a worthy opponent in the snaky shane, who trumps tom's attempts at blackmail, but can't keep up with his nasty houseguests vile temper.