By Bart Greenberg***Playwright Nora Burns’ David’s Friend, now in performance at Soho Playhouse in rep with her play The Village! A Disco Daydream, might be a surprise to those who have seen her previous work. The latter show (reviewed by me here in a previous 
production) is a big, messy kaleidoscope about life in Greenwich Village in the early ‘80s. The cast of flamboyant gay men, porn stars, hustlers, johns, drug addicts and pushers run in and out of the central character’s apartments until a final flash forward, a la Thornton Wilder, reflects on the past. David’s Friend covers the same time period, but is much more personal and narrow in scope, with the author telling her own story in as close to a monologue as possible, with a second actor, the very handsome Ricky Roman, present for bits and pieces.
Burns was a wild kid and a born “fag hag” by her own definition. She felt most alive at gay discos in the late ‘70s, in one of which she met David, a beautiful young gay man who became her best friend, her mentor, and in some ways, the love of her life. They shared apartments, jobs, adventures, drugs and lovers. Together they crashed the hotspots of the day up to and including Studio 54. 
Her story is told by sharing pages of her diary that reveal her crazy schedules running from one club to another, and the people who filtered in and out of their lives, famous, notorious and forgotten—who was Filito?
Telling her story with great humor and energy, Burns kept the audience enthralled with nary a lapse. Often breaking into disco dancing (choreography by Robin Carrigan), which seemed totally spontaneous, Burns also presented images of the people she spoke about (videos created by director Adam Pivirotto). She also changed bits and pieces of her wardrobe (designed by Paul Alexander) throughout the play. The evening had great variety, which allowed the avoidance of monotony that so many solo shows are subject to. Burns also cre
ated very different personalities for herself, both in the past and in the present, reflecting on her early life, which served a a marker to let the audience clearly follow and know the timeline.
Burns was not alone on stage. Identified as DJ, Roman actually portrayed a wide variety of men, including the title character, who floated through her life. Most of them were handsome and a surprising number didn’t seem to own a shirt. The actor, with a background in adult entertainment, was quite comfortable in various stages of undress and physically embodied his roles with an easy grace. And late in the show, when he was given a chance to read a moving passage from David’s writing, he accomplished this with great feeling.
There is one design flaw in the show. The constant videos displayed on a slashed curtain upstage via rear-projection allowed the light of the equipment to be quite visible to those in the front rows of the audience. The “movement” of the screen 
also often caused a strobe effect. (Perhaps a trigger warning should be included for the comfort of some members of the audience.) Overall, Pivirotta’s direction was skilled in keeping the show focused while utilizing the entire playing space. In what was obviously a close collaboration between director, playwright and performer, David’s Friend was a seamless and moving capture of a singular cultural life and a moment in time.
David’s Friend, in repertory with The Village, plays at The Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., NYC thru August 9, 2024. For tickets and more information, go to sohoplayhouse.com.
Photos by Johnny Yang
