recito

Of

JULIE Y
s&EaNitERs,A1N M ENT EDITOR

/..1.111\AIII) hen Peter Birkenhead was growing up He's very compassionate and is struggling very hard
in the late '60s and
an '70s, he didn't have to do the right thing and, at the same time, live hon-
estly. And those two things come to conflict ... I think
much time for theatrical pursuits.
Instead, his parents had him cham- what Josh and Ethan both share is that they're both
pioning their causes firsthand, like the really scrupulous people who are lying to themselves."
While Birkenhead agrees that Josh and Ethan are
Eugene McCarthy for President campaign,
and the anti-war and civil rights movements. very similar in temperament, he's quick to add that
As a 9-year-old boy living in the racially and econom- Josh and Louis are his favorite characters in his act-
ically diverse suburb of Glen Cove, Long Island, ing career. "They're two guys who both like to talk a
Birkenhead remembers being kept out of school for lot as a means of deflecting attention from the more
personal and emotional sub-
a protest, going on marches,
ject at hand."
holding candles and not real-
Detroit audiences will re-
ly understanding why he was
member
Birkenhead's stellar
there.
performance
as Louis Ironson,
Twenty-six years later, those
a
Jewish
man
racked with
experiences have helped him
guilt
and
confusion
over his
prepare for his lead role as
homosexuality
and
his
lover's
Ethan Goodman in Ari Roth's
AIDS-related
illness,
in
Tony
newest play, Goodnight Irene.
Kushner's
Pulitzer
Prize-
and
Making its world premiere
Tony
Award-winning
Angels
tonight at the Performance
in America. It was presented
Network in Ann Arbor, Good-
as two plays, "Part I: Millen-_
night Irene is the story of a Jew-
nium
Approaches" and "Part
ish journalist in New York
II:
Perestroika,"
in rotating
who's wrestling with his ideals
repertory
at
the
Fisher
The-
and trying to come to grips with
atre
for
one
week
in
Novem-
himself, his family and his clos-
ber of '95.
est friend, a black man named
Birkenhead performed the
Keith, in the aftermath of the
intensive lead role on the 23-
Crown Heights incidents be-
city national tour for one-and-
tween blacks and Jews.
a-half years.
"The play's about how the
"[In playing so many Jew-
dreams and traumas of the
ish characters], I think there's
past, specifically Crown
a little bit of both typecasting
Heights and the civil rights Peter Birkenhead (seated) starred as Louis, a Jewish man
and me seeking out the parts,"
movement, continually shape tormented by guilt over his homosexuality and his lover's
says Birkenhead. "I think you
and distort our turbulently (played by Robert Sella, above) AIDS-related illness, in
end up playing the roles that
race-obsessed present," says Angels in America.
you should be and that you can
Roth. He named the play after
his Aunt Irene, who committed suicide in Lake Michi- bring something to. It's really enjoyable for me to look
at this list of characters and remember that they were
gan on her 40th birthday.
"Ethan's a lot more complicated and contradictory," all the same guy — they are all "nice" Jewish char-
Birkenhead says of his new character, contrasting him acters ... i'm really happy to have found this niche."
Birkenhead started creating his niche when he be-
to Josh, the role he originated in Roth's first play, Oh,
The Innocents. "He's a great guy. I like Ethan a lot. came a Neil Simon prodigy of sorts, with starring roles

With a
collaborative
production team
of blacks and
Jews, playwright
Ari Roth
hopes to promote
dialogue between
the groups in
his very
personal work,
"Goodnight Irene."