Review: HAPPY FALL: A QUEER STUNT SPECTACULAR an Exhilarating, Sensuous Performance

For the past 2 seasons, Artistic Director Peggy McKowen has opened The Frank Center, the main stage of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, to plays devoted to the LGBTQ community.  The shows invite CATF audiences to see our queer neighbors and family as three-dimensional—every bit as ambitious, foolish, and selfish as we are.  And in both cases—last year’s production of Donja R. Love’s “What Will Happen to All That Beauty?” and this year’s “Happy Fall:  A Queer Stunt Spectacular,” created by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artist’s Ensemble—the experience can be challenging, and the rewards are many.

The added dimension this year, and one close to my heart, is the art of stunt performance—featuring the fine art of stage combat, with which I am quite familiar, having certified as an actor-combatant myself.  It is thrilling to see my fellow combatants get their moment to shine live, onstage, and the cast of “Happy Fall”—a number of them professional stunt performers—deliver a spectacle not to be missed.  Blow for blow, flashing swords and fisticuffs at the ready, we’re treated to the exhilaration of mock-combat, whose precision is matched by the actors’ seemingly miraculous ability to jump right back up and go for it all over again. 

Director Ralph B. Peña manages the balance between story and action quite well.  There are things I would have liked to have heard, in terms of dialogue, to fill out the characters a bit more, but the show is tightly produced and the artists in fine shape.

Leading off the festivities is the charismatic, no-nonsense Aubrey Deeker as Clay, a seasoned stunt performer who, in bold purple regalia (Costume Designer Andrew Jordan’s fun work), begins the show as our host.  Clay promises us a masterclass in the pugilistic arts, aided by Stefania Bulbarella’s brilliant and brilliantly showy projection design. 

The evening gets off to a brisk start, before stepping behind the action to reveal the human side of the profession.  Eventually we are invited to contemplate the contrast between Clay’s declining skills and the quick reflexes and brashness of new arrival Felix (the charming and highly skilled Glenn Morizio), who has conned his way onto the set of a new action film, posing as a DoorDash delivery man.  Felix’s ability to replace another stunt performer on the fly, and do a fight he seems to know by heart already, endears him to Clay.

One fascinating addition to the cast comes in the form of a life-size puppet, representing and sometimes doubling for Clay.  One minute it seems to be used for practice, as Felix acquaints himself with moves he and Clay will perform live later; at other times, the puppet seems to represent Clay’s aging body, an instrument with moving parts that are becoming stiffer with time.  And there is also the question of Clay’s emotional life (as in, does he have one?).  Watch how the puppet transforms the action, it’s a fascinating and open-ended experience.

A romance between the two stunt performers is in the offing, but with it the comes the tension between veteran and newcomer that is the stuff of all our favorite Hollywood backstage dramas.  As it becomes clear that Felix’s career is on the rise, Clay sees obstacles thrown in his path, and the tension between these two lovers reaches a fever pitch.  The twist here is that beyond the usual generation gap scenario, there is the yawning gap between how gay stunt performers were treated when Clay was in his prime, and how they’re regarded today.  Felix’s path seems smooth and bright in ways Clay never could have imagined back in his early days. 

At stake, for both men, is Felix’s attempt at a record stunt—staged here under the watchful eye of Stunt Specialist Frank Alfano Jr., with Bulbarella’s projections aiding in the spectacular illusion of truly a death-defying feat.  Given how often we watch stunts like these at the movies or on TV, it is revelatory to see how such actions can be translated to the live theater stage.  And how dangerous these stunts, on screen, can truly be.

Stunts aside, one aspect of “Happy Fall” that is likely to raise eyebrows is the use of intimacy.  Intimacy Director David Anzuelo has worked with the actors to create discreetly staged moments of sexual contact between Clay and Felix, which in terms of choreography are neatly done.  The use of Intimacy Coordinators—long overdue, in my experience—is in its early years, and should lay the groundwork for a broader conversation within the profession about the uses of intimacy onstage and on screen.  There are questions, however, about its uses here, and it’s worthwhile to think more deeply about its implications going forward.

We’re accustomed to fight sequences—which feature prominently in this show—but in the context of a film, these sequences are designed to advance the plot, and to bring resolution to a specific tension in the story.  It may be true that the adrenaline rush of stage combat can be likened to “sex with fists,” as one character puts it here.  But even with fists, there are limits; when we’re watching a show, fights for fights’ sake alone are not nearly as interesting as those which maintain the sense of forward progress in the narrative.  And it wasn’t clear to me whether the intimate scenes staged here served the plot, or whether the plot merely served the intimacy—this is a general question, by no means limited to the current production at CATF.  A story within the story, so to speak, whose resolution lies well beyond the festival grounds, let alone that “Theater Near You.”

“Happy Fall” works best as a celebration of the art of stage combat and stunt work on film.  Audiences owe a huge debt to the men and women who put their bodies on the line so that our beloved stars (who truth be known aren’t allowed to do a fraction of the stuff we see on screen) can live to shoot another day.  And as the demand for ever more spectacular stunts continues to grow, these human beings become that much more vulnerable.  Hats off to all of them.

Production Photo:  Glenn Morizio (L) and Aubrey Deeker (R).  Photo by Seth Freeman.

The 2025 Contemporary American Theater Festival will run from July 11 through August 3, on the campus of Shepherd University in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia.