Characters Discussed
Michael
Michael, a guilt-ridden, thirty-year-old homosexual whose sole purpose in life is to avoid his feelings. When unable to cope on a daily basis, he escapes into characterizations of past female screen stars. If reality becomes more threatening, he takes a jet to some distant location, then spends extravagant sums of money he does not have. Until recently, alcohol had been another escape. After selling one unproduced screenplay, he gave up writing. Because he does not have any other source of income, he spends most of his time avoiding creditors. Michael backslides to the bottle when the all-male birthday party he is throwing for his friend Harold is crashed by Alan, his former Georgetown University roommate who is straight and not aware of Michael’s homosexuality. Michael’s hostility increases, to the point at which he invents an insidious emotional game designed to hurt and demoralize his guests.
Donald
Donald, a responsible, hardworking gay man who scrubs floors for a living. At the age of twenty-eight, he views his life as a failure and is committed to therapy. He is an intelligent man and an avid reader. At the birthday party, it is revealed that he had a one-night stand at a bathhouse with Hank’s lover Larry.
Hank
Hank, a math teacher in superb athletic condition. Thirty-two-year-old Hank has left his wife and children for a relationship with Larry. Deeply in love, he is frustrated by Larry’s unwillingness to be faithful. This tension prompts continuous barbs between the two. Hank becomes the only gay man with whom the straight Alan can relate.
Larry
Larry, a commercial artist and Hank’s twenty-nine-year-old lover. He has a strong sexual appetite and, even though he confesses during Michael’s game to loving Hank more than anyone else, he still cannot promise to be monogamous in their relationship. Although he becomes jealous of the attention that Alan is giving to Hank, he continues to flirt with Donald.
Emory
Emory, an effeminate, campy interior decorator. The small, frail thirty-three-year-old is a somewhat pathetic character. Shunned by mainstream society, he has found a friend in a member of another minority—Bernard, the black man whom he incessantly derides.
Bernard
Bernard, an employee of the library’s circulation department. Although he has experienced prejudice because he is black as well as gay, he feels more fortunate than the flagrantly effeminate Emory. That is why he allows Emory—and only Emory—to belittle him at times. As proud as Bernard is, Michael manages to humiliate him during his game. He coaxes Bernard into telephoning a white man whom Bernard has loved since the time he and his mother worked for the man’s family, when the man was only a boy.
Harold
Harold, an unattractive, gay Jewish man. Harold is thirty-two years old, and it is his birthday being celebrated. He is obsessed with his lack of good looks, poor complexion, and fleeting youth. Harold arrives at the party late and intoxicated. He receives a beautiful but moronic male hustler as a gift from Emory.
Alan
Alan, a thirty-year-old lawyer with a wife and two daughters. Although Alan is Michael’s former roommate from Georgetown University, he is unaware of Michael’s homosexuality. When he arrives at the party uninvited, he discovers that he is the only heterosexual present. Someone as effete as Emory is repulsive to him, and Alan physically attacks him. During the game in which he is compelled to participate, Michael tries to extract a homosexual confession from him. Instead, Alan calls his wife and pledges his love to her.
Cowboy
Cowboy, a muscular, good-looking, and vacuous twenty-two-year-old hustler. He is Emory’s twenty-dollar birthday present to...
(This entire section contains 615 words.)
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Harold.
Characters
Bernard
Bernard is the sole African American in the group. His role in the play is minor until the climax, when Michael introduces the Affairs of the Heart game. Prompted to call someone he loves and express his feelings, Bernard decides to call Peter Dahlbeck, the son of the family where his mother worked as a maid. Once, while intoxicated, Peter and Bernard had an intimate encounter in the pool house, but they never discussed it afterward. When Peter’s mother answers the phone and mentions that Peter is out on a date, Bernard spends the remainder of the play berating himself for making such a foolish call.
Cowboy
The Cowboy is a striking young man dressed in a cowboy outfit, hired for twenty dollars to sing "Happy Birthday" to Harold and spend the night with him. Unfortunately, he arrives early, before Harold gets there. He wishes to leave early and go to bed because he injured his heel while doing chin-ups. Throughout the play, he asks innocent questions, unable to keep pace with the group's witty dialogue. In the end, he leaves with Harold.
Donald
Donald is not well-acquainted with the other party guests. He is a friend of Michael’s and lives outside of New York, renting a room in the Hamptons. He has been working as a floor scrubber since dropping out of college. Donald visits the city on Saturday nights to see his psychiatrist and stays at Michael’s apartment.
Emory
Emory is the group's joker and the most flamboyantly gay member. He frequently refers to himself and others as "girls" or "Mary." He prepared most of the food for the party. His lighthearted and whimsical demeanor angers Alan, leading to Alan punching Emory at the end of the first act. During the game at the play's conclusion, Emory calls Delbert Botts, an older boy he had a crush on in junior high and high school. Emory once humiliated himself by begging Delbert to be his friend and giving him an expensive gift, only to discover at the senior prom that Delbert had been mocking him to others and was engaged to be married.
Hallie
See Harold
Hank
Hank left his wife and two children to move in with Larry. He works as a schoolteacher. Alan, noticing Hank's wedding ring, feels a connection to him. This suggests that Alan's attraction to Hank may stem from identifying with him as the only other heterosexual in the room, rather than from an erotic interest. In Act 2, Hank stays offstage with Alan when Alan feels ill. At the play's conclusion, Hank chooses to call Larry, the person he loves most, despite knowing Larry struggles with commitment to just one man.
Harold
Harold's birthday is being celebrated, and he is the last character to arrive, appearing at the end of the first act. A former ice skater, Harold deals with his depression and self-loathing by using drugs. Upon his arrival, Michael comments on Harold being late and high on marijuana. Harold bitterly responds, "What I am, Michael, is a thirty-two-year-old, ugly, pock-marked Jew fairy." Later, discussing beauty, Harold remarks on his soul, noting, "if I could, I’d sell it in a flash for some skin-deep, transitory, meaningless beauty." Michael informs the group that Harold is hoarding depressant drugs to commit suicide before he grows old, a claim Harold does not refute. Harold is attracted to the Cowboy, who is beautiful but almost entirely lacking in intellect.
Larry
Larry works as a commercial artist. He previously had an impersonal affair with Donald, where they had sex without even knowing each other's names. Larry explains it, "We haven’t exactly met, but we’ve . . . Seen . . . each other before." Although he lives with Hank, Larry is hesitant to commit to a monogamous relationship, believing it to be unrealistic.
Alan McCarthy
Alan is an old college roommate of Michael’s. During their college years, Alan was unaware of Michael's homosexuality, so Michael tries to keep it hidden. Throughout the play, there are several strong indications that Alan is struggling with his own suppressed homosexual feelings. Alan calls Michael in tears, asking to come over, and Michael fears that Alan will discover his secret. This fear is realized when Alan enters the apartment and sees all the men dancing together. Alan connects with Hank after noticing his wedding ring and spends much of the play staying close to him. He even tells Michael privately, "That Hank is really a very attractive fellow." After a few drinks, Alan becomes furious with Emory, lunging at him and shouting, "I'll kill you, you... little mincing swish. You... freak. FREAK! FREAK!" Later in the second act, Michael insists that Alan call Justin Stuart, a man with whom Alan had a gay affair in college. It seems Alan is acknowledging his homosexuality when he says "I love you" over the phone, but when Michael takes the phone, he discovers that Alan has called his wife and reaffirmed his heterosexual relationship.
Michael
The play is set in Michael's apartment. Michael is a writer who sold a screenplay that was never produced. He spends most of his time traveling, accumulating debts, and relying on others to pay them. Michael is aging and losing his hair, a fact highlighted multiple times throughout the play. He is also seeing a therapist to cope with the self-hatred he feels about his lifestyle. Michael is well-versed in cinema history and has a movie reference for almost every situation. Early in the play, he tells Donald that he has quit drinking and smoking because he can't stand the "morning-after ick attack" when he recalls the things he said and did while intoxicated. However, after the tension between Emory and Alan eases, Michael starts drinking again, and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and offensive. He eventually invents a "party game" designed to humiliate all the guests. In the end, in a reversal of the opening scene, Michael leaves his own apartment, intending to attend midnight mass at the Catholic church.
