See, Before That Night I Met You, I Was … Well, It’s Kind of Complicated

The marketing for On a Stool at the End of the Bar, the new drama by Robert Callely at 59E59 Theaters, studiously avoids giving away the pivotal fact of the play. At Sunday’s performance, the revelation of this secret provoked a smattering of nervous laughter and, from the woman in front of me, a soft, surprised “Ohhhhh!” But that moment happens early in this Directors Company production, and there’s no useful way to discuss the play without mentioning it. So, fair warning: spoiler dead ahead. Chris McCullough (Antoinette Thornes) has been with Tony DeMarco (Timothy John Smith) for a decade, and there’s still a sexy, teasing vibe between them. He’s a bit of a Neanderthal — this is late-1980s New Jersey, and the gender roles in their working-class house are neatly divided — but it’s a warm, happy home. Tony’s three teenagers love Chris as much as she loves them. The family’s tranquillity is blown to smithereens with the arrival of Chris’s long-estranged brother. He tells Tony something Chris never mentioned: Before she was Christine, she was Christopher. The play is about how much that matters and to whom: not just that Chris is transgender, but that she kept it from Tony even as she made a life with him.