The Chicago Shakespeare Theater company is mounting the North American premiere of Brokeback Mountain just in time for Pride month. Based on a 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is the tale of two cowboys who experience a love affair in 1963.
Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired to herd sheep and a secret relationship develops between them while they camp in Wyoming.
The Jentes Family Courtyard Theater space will transport audiences from Navy Pier to the scenic outdoors from May to June this year. Playwright Ashley Robinson brings the novella to the stage with a fresh adaptation following the world premiere in the London West End theater @sohoplace in 2023.
Several members of the creative team identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, including gay director Jonathan Butterell, who was interviewed by Windy City Times in 2021 for his film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. This new endeavor has Butterell reuniting with the British composer from Jamie, Dan Gillespie Sells, to convey the story musically.
Harrison Ball stars as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Cameron Kay portrays Jack Twist. Ball comes from the world of movement, and he was a former principal dancer in the New York City Ballet. Jack Cameron Kay has a Juilliard-trained operatic background and he was most recently spotted on the Netflix television series Boots. Harrison was born in Houston, then raised in South Carolina and Jack hails from the Midwest area of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Both of these budding young actors identify as gay.
This dynamic duo wants to make it clear that the show at Shakes is not a recreation of the 2005 Focus Features film Brokeback Mountain. This theatrical version is based firmly on the story and they took a break from intense rehearsals to talk about that fact.
Windy City Times: When did you two meet?
Jack Cameron Kay: We were in the same cafeteria 10 years ago because Juilliard and New York City Ballet have the same cafeteria. When the team was casting the role, they had a hard time finding someone to play Jack Twist. Harrison told them about a boy from Julliard who he remembered from the cafeteria and who he thought would be great.
Harrison Ball: We had never met, but I had a feeling. I knew he had done the Boots TV show, so I knew his acting skills. I messaged him and he did the rest to be in the show.
WCT: Brokeback Mountain debuted as a play at London’s West End in 2023. Did you see it?
JCK: We watched it on YouTube and it was informative.
HB: This production is very different, though. Everyone involved brings something different to the table.
Our director, Jonathan Butterell, is a genius. We all get along so well, creatively and personally. He’s shaping the show around our instruments, our personal lives and backgrounds. That’s what we are doing in the room and this moment feels like it is happening in real time.
JCK: It’s definitely being devised in real time. An hour ago, I was handed a new monologue by the playwright because he wrote around what he knows I can do. This piece is very much alive, where it is living and breathing.
HB: If it goes on to have more life, it will continue to evolve. It’s an exciting place to experience theater when it’s being carved out every day.
WCT: Does this approach empower you to truly make the material your own?
JCK: Yes. It’s not the movie and based on the short story.
HB: It’s extrapolated from the book, which the film is as well, but it’s a different beast. It’s not close up in the same way, although Jonathan talks about close-ups a lot with this because it is in an intimate setting. For example, Ennis is very quiet, so Jonathan creates those pictures for me so I can have that moment with Jack, who is a chatty, animated character, to find a balance between them.
WCT: Are microphones used in the theater for the quieter scenes?
HB: No, we are not wearing microphones for this piece.
JCK: Jonathan specifically wanted to work with screen actors for this. The majority of our work has been with movies or TV. He is constantly finding time in the show for us to have close-ups onstage. He’s making use of the intimate setting of this piece and there are moments of zeroing in on one actor in what he calls “a close-up.” He is embracing this and bringing the audience in as close as possible.
WCT: Is it challenging to make heavy scenes entertaining for a live audience?
HB: We are not there to entertain per se. We are telling a story through Ashley Robinson’s writing and Jonathan’s directing, which is extremely specific. Every microbeat of this play is Jonathan Butterell’s brain.
In some way, this sets us free to be the character, versus not understanding the character. We are never wondering what we are doing during this rehearsal process. Even that intimate aspect of the process is closely observed.
JCK: There’s still lots of room for discovery, too.
HB: True. We are outside a great deal of the time and the environment is a big thing in this play. If you think about this time period and what they are up against, internally and externally derives from where they are in America.
The set is fantastic and different from the West End production because it’s not in the round. This allows us to be in the space where the audience will be able to feel that intimacy.
There is a silence and energy in each scene with a musical element to it. The balladeers make a soundscape of the mountain. There is real fire and grass, so the environment is there, too.
JCK: It is on a thrust stage, so we are right in there with the audience sitting close.
WCT: Is Brokeback Mountain a typical musical?
JCK: The music is non-diegetic. There is a person who doesn’t exist in our world, with the band that accompanies him.
HB: This makes it cinematic in a way. It works for us because we hear it too. Jonathan has been specific about the band and the actor having awareness of each other. We are all a part of the cast and the musicians are very much characters themselves, including their sound and expressions.
The composer Dan Gillespie Sells has been specific about intentions for the sound and it’s scrutinized in a great way.
WCT: Is Jack’s shirt included in the production?
JCK: Of course.
HB: The beginning of the play starts with Ennis in his trailer, where he’s being evicted and it follows the day after he discovers the shirt in Jack’s bedroom. Through that, he puts the shirt in his bag and his memories are what we go through in this story until that moment. We begin where we ended.
WCT: Are you practicing with an audience for your first staged play together?
JCK: We just did our first run with a live audience yesterday. There were designers in the room and it felt like there was new energy. We also had new nerves as well, but it was nice to hear people respond verbally. My character has some comedic lines and the feedback was helpful. It revved my engine up and I feel like I have caught the bug.
HB: I am okay with an audience and I grew up performing in front of an audience since I was five years old. I have been craving theater, so for me, this is the bees’ knees.
WCT: Does it feel like an immersive environment?
HB: Yes, you can live in it and beat by beat, we are creating this world. This type of play moves very quickly through a 20-year time expanse. A quarter of the way through it, we are just there and present. There is no time for standing in the wings.
WCT: Does that help with the nerves with no time to overthink?
HB: Well, it’s okay to act nervous because the characters live in a time of fear. It was a beautiful thing when it first worked for us because there’s transference and it’s useful. It’s a really great place for us to begin because, inherently, there is a lot we can understand about these characters.
WCT: How do you feel Brokeback Mountain, set in 1963, resonates today?
HB: This story is important, particularly in this moment in our country. Perhaps some people feel we have passed this place, but we really haven’t. Society is headed back to where these two guys were.
With that being said, it’s not so much a gay story as it is a love story. I think that’s the distinction here, which makes this story so much more complex and interesting versus two guys who can’t admit they are gay. It’s powerful, nuanced and sensitive.
No matter what one’s sexuality or identification is, we all have a little bit of this story in us.
WCT: Is there freedom to continue this show after the run at Shakespeare Theater?
JCK: I think that is the reasonable expectation for a show like this when it comes to Chicago. There’s a natural progression and Paranormal Activity from Chicago Shakespeare is now going to Broadway.
HB: I hope this story gets expanded and told in other places. Brokeback Mountain is a universal story about survival and expression.
Camp out with Ennis and Jack at Navy Pier from May 28 to June 28 at 800 E. Grand Ave.
A special pre-show Pride night event accompanies the show on June 2 and is hosted by chicagolgbthalloffame.org/brokeback. For up-to-date ticket information, mosey over to chicagoshakes.com.