Good Bi Kiss

When Robert Keller asked me to direct his screenplay GOOD BI KISS, three elements immediately drew me to the piece: its claustrophobic, pressure-cooker environment loaded with subtext; its attention to character; and its willingness to ask tough questions about LGBTQ identity. Breakup fights are always fun to film -- who can’t relate? -- but the added twist here throws the old whose-side-are-you-on? question out to the audience in surprising new ways. Our approach to GBK was to dive headlong into those icky moments in real life that rarely provide any closure (is there such a thing?), with each party at least getting to land a few verbal right hooks for some temporary relief of existential pain. My favorite play of all time is CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a three-act drama in which not one character changes a whit from beginning to end, which shouldn’t work, but does because, by venting their pent-up frustrations, the characters force a change in the audience, if not themselves. And maybe, with due deference to Mr. Williams, we see a little of Maggie and Brick in the characters Robert created here: a woman exploding with ambivalent feelings regarding her former partner, and a man who can’t be fully honest about himself to her, no matter how much he pretends to do just that. My hope is that audiences get to blow off some vicarious steam regarding their own past relationships, and maybe carry a little more compassion to the next one.