NARROW ROOMS: JERKER

In a San Francisco apartment, in 1985, Bert is just about to fall asleep when a stranger named J.R. calls. “You hard?” he asks Bert, and the two begin a hot and heavy phone sex session that soon turns into a nightly routine. Over the span of a year, we watch as Bert (Tom Wagner) and J.R. (Joseph Stachura) explore their fantasies, get each other off, and forge a deeper connection that allows them to open up to each other about their fears and sorrows surrounding the AIDS epidemic, all without ever meeting face to face. Playwright Robert Chesley wryly called his groundbreaking 1986 play JERKER “a pornographic elegy with redeeming social value and a hymn to the queer men of San Francisco,” which perhaps sought to preempt the inevitable criticism and censorship of the play’s unabashedly sex-positive dialogue. Hugh Harrison’s smart, rarely seen 1991 adaptation combines the rich, raunchy text of Chesley’s play with the shot-on-video aesthetics of late 1980s gay adult films, making us feel as if we’re watching an especially well-written Jeff Stryker or Joey Stefano movie. Help us celebrate the 40th anniversary of JERKER’s theatrical premiere with this very special screening.

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