“When Nathaniel dies of AIDS he looks down from Heaven upon his
parents, he tries unsuccessfully to curse them from Heaven for abandoning him to die alone
of AIDS just because he was gay,” Bernard A. Goldberg describes the plot of his play
Your Cursing Days Are Over. “As his parents are caught between guilt for abandoning
their son, love for him, and righteous indignation at his being gay, they find redemption
in telling their story to their Christian neighbors with similar problems.”
It sounds simple enough, but Goldberg’s play, holds a message much deeper than just
parental healing. Through moments of dark humor including the presence of Nathaniel's
invisible dog; periodic outbursts of angelic exuberance in Jewish context and a surprising
rabbinic ending leaving there is a serious examination of current social issues being
dealt with in the storyline. “Not the least of those serious issues is the initial
and, regrettably, still persistent attitudes of denial concerning sexual orientation,
particularly in faith communities,” says Goldberg. “The audience will leave
wondering what they've witnessed but smiling.”
The Lambda Players have partnered with the Lavender Library Archives and Cultural Exchange
to bring two readings of Bernard’s groundbreaking AIDS play to the Sacramento LGBT
Community.
“We’re very pleased to be able to present Mr. Goldberg’s work,” says
Lambda Players Vice-President Tom Swanner. “It’s not often we get a chance to
present material like this and to also partner with other organizations within the
community-this project has provided opportunities to do both.”
Goldberg, who worked this year with the planning committee for Yolo and Sacramento
County's World AIDS Day observance, designed his play to be performed as a readers'
theatre play asking that it be performed during the four weeks surrounding World AIDS Day,
December 1. As part of his mission, Goldberg also waived his claim to the play offering it
as public domain.
Goldberg has represented the Jewish Community of Sacramento in AIDS Interfaith Network for
six years, two of those as local president. A teacher of reading and writing, retired
following 35 years experience, he has self-published three volumes of his poetry; an angry
book describing inadvertent negative social consequences of teaching paragraph unity;
various satires of synagogue life; and numerous children’s stories.
Your Cursing Days Are Over will be held at the LLACE office 1414 21st Street at 7pm
Wednesday December 11th and repeating on Wednesday, December 18th. The readings,
approximately 30 minutes in length will feature speakers after each performance including
a representative from CARES on Dec. 11th and John Rambo of Breaking Barriers on Dec. 18th.
The reading’s will feature Lambda Players performers will include Juan Flores
(Paperclip Messiah), JG Gonsalves (Opening Lines), Jeanie Moore (Well of Horniness), Brian
Judd (Paperclip Messiah).
A portion of the funds raised will be donated Sacramento AIDS volunteer service Breaking
Barriers. For more information you may call LLACE at 492-0558.
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