At a beautiful Dutchess County farmhouse, 8 men hash out their passions, 

resentments and fears over the course of 3 summer weekends.

There's Perry and Arthur, a professional couple of long standing, whose relationship, while strained, always manages to settle into the loving routine of a couple grown too familiar with one another, but happily so. The owner of the summer house, Gregory, is an aging choreographer who dotes on his younger lover, Bobby, who is blind. Their relationship seems solid, until an irresistible dancer, Ramon, callously flaunts his sex appeal and manages to seduce Bobby on the first night in the house. Trying to keep Ramon to himself is John Jeckyll, a soured ex-patriot Brit with a taste for melodrama -- and cruelty. John rankles everyone around him, speaking the unspeakable in haughty nonchalance while probing the weaknesses of the others. The painful truth about his ire eventually becomes clear when he has to take care of his terminally ill twin brother, James. Unlike John, James inspires nothing but affection in those around him, and here lies both the crux of John's complaint and the source of one of the play's most blistering and revealing of monologues about the related questions of gay identity and self-esteem. Finally, there is Buzz, a maniacal lover of the musical theater. Like James, Buzz suffers from AIDS, and he has resigned himself to a life of humorous anecdotes and comforting trivia. Strange things can happen, though, and against all odds, Buzz finds himself falling in love for what may be one last summer.

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McNally's theatrical roster includes the librettos of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime and The Rink, as well as the scripts for Master Class, Lips Together Teeth Apart and Bad Habits among many others. Speaking with WCT from his New York office, the multiple Tony-award winner reflected upon his career and the recent release of the film version of his 1994 Broadway triumph Love! Valour! Compassion!

McNally has been writing about gay issues since the '60s. "I can't even remember what play or book I encountered that first featured a character I recognized as gay," McNally mused. "It probably started with Tennessee Williams in high school. I had a wonderful English teacher, and we read Oscar Wilde and Williams, so it must have been then. Yes, in Texas, all those years ago! We've stayed in touch, that teacher and I, and it gave me great pleasure to invite her to performances of my plays."

McNally reminisced about his high school stint waiting tables at the Robin Hood Cafe so he could buy opera and musical comedy records. "I never felt that sense of isolation, though, that I hear others talking about, that I was the only gay man in the world. I was the only one I knew, but that didn't make me uncomfortable. I never sought other gay men out, at least not until I came to New York." He started laughing. "And then I didn't need to."

Back when I first started, all you basically needed was a half-way decent script to get a play on Broadway," McNally commented. He sounded a little amazed by the memory. "It's so difficult now. It's almost impossible now. Back in those days, it was simply fun. I wrote plays because it was exciting, and I liked actors, and it seemed like a good way to get laid." McNally has always been proud of his designation as a "gay playwright," and he is clearly touched when he is told that his plays are political. One suspects he's suffered in comparison to more overtly polemical writers such as Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner.

"No one ever tells me I'm a political playwright, and I absolutely am!" he exclaimed. "I have been writing about these issues forever. I don't like harangues; I don't think people need to be beaten over the head with what I think. All human beings are political animals. Sit-coms are political, as nobody needs to be reminded. When you write a gay play, you're entering certain spheres of economics. At fifty bucks a ticket, of course your plays are political at a certain level."

"This is a society that sells sex, and I think I'm helping to keep us from being cut short," McNally continued. "Gay literature is going through its adolescence. The trouble with it is that everyone just talks about being gay. I think the issues are no longer how unhappy we are or why we exist.

"I go for months without the word 'gay' coming from my mouth -- of course, why should I? All of my friends and the people I loathe are gay and I don't really need to get on a platform with them, but the issue isn't identity anymore. We're involved in the world. Saying 'I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm all alone' doesn't cut it anymore. We'll come to the party, we'll be invited, and we'll help clean up."

Once McNally gets going, it's hard for him to slow down, but he was aware of the time and he tried. "I'd like my life to be a role model," he said. "I don't have to write super gay characters who are role models for the rest of us, but I do have to be one. Not a spokesman; I don't want to deal in rhetoric. I deal in humanity."

McNally feels that audiences tend to identify with all of the characters in Love! Valour! Compassion! "They're not generic types. Critics sometimes focus on the nudity. I get so annoyed when they say it's gratuitous, and I wonder if that's a way of distancing themselves from the characters. Sometimes the nudity scenes get compared to Eakins, and that's all right by me. Art and dance are inarticulate, and there's a freedom there I envy. I go to the museums and ballet as much as I do to the theater, and I love talking to dancers and artists. Especially with the NEA budget cuts, it's nice to know you're not alone."

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