Take Me Out
Is the locker room the place where change must begin?
I remember being stupefied by Richard Greenberg’s deconstruction of the American Male when Take Me Out first appeared on Broadway in 2003. His unblinking examination of the rampant homophobia that runs through men’s veins, his unsettling exposure of the inherent racial biases that bedevil us, and his indictment of the media’s role in fanning the fires surrounding these issues was breathtakingly bold then. The play seems even more prescient and relevant in 2022, as it insists that it is time for men to tackle these problems so endemic to our dominant culture of masculinity. Twenty years later I hear this revival not as a clarion call to address these issues, but as an indictment for not doing so.
The fact that the play’s plot remains topical is a key indicator of how little things have changed. When star center fielder Darren Lemming of the pinstriped New York Empires makes a matter-of-fact, mid-season announcement that he is gay, his teammates are thrown off their game. With their old patterns of behavior and shared understandings of what means to be male rocked to their foundation by their bi-racial teammate, the Empires go into a slump. Relief pitcher Shane Mungitt is brought up from the farm team to strengthen the roster. It turns out, however, that he is deeply racist and homophobic. As the men regroup…
