We Are Gathered, the new play by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Academy Award winner for the Moonlight screenplay), is a love story that takes the spiritual lives of the people we call queer and the people we call Black seriously. As such, the play is not “merely” entertainment. It is a celebration and affirmation of the right to exist. It is an immersion in rituals of healing. In addition to that, the play is an awful lot of fun to watch.
Many psychotherapeutic modalities recognize that because human lives are wounded within the context of community, human lives can only be healed within the context of community. This play suggests what that process of healing the lives of Black and queer folks within community might look like.
At a crucial moment in the play, the character Xi (Jade Jones) says to Free (Nic Ashe), Wallace Tre’s (Kyle Beltran) lover:
Go into the woods and face the wolf. There’s one in every fairytale, and that’s what Dubs is trying to give you. A happy ending.
W Tre (nicknamed “Dubs”) and Free met five years ago. They describe the meeting differently. Dubs says: “We fucked in a park.” Free says: “We did … make love … right where we met.” Now, as Dubs approaches his 40th birthday and Free approaches his 30th, they are trying to figure out whether they will marry and what marriage means for them. Dubs is tortured by the questions. Free, less so. Can the edifice of their relationship, and its relation to the larger community, be built on a foundation of shame and mere “politically correct” resistance?
Says Dubs of Free:
I hear him singing and I think, “I’m lucky,” right? God gifted. God gave me a gift sucking dick in a park? Huh. And so I go back. That’s where I went that night of my birthday and I’ve been going back since. Not to do anything, but to think. Feel. Something will tell me, something will find me. Forgive me. I’m lost. Sorry.
Over the course of the play, we meet the families into which these two were born and the families they have chosen. Nana Jae (Jade Jones) and Pop Pop (Craig Wallace) are Free’s grandparents, who raised him to be fully who he is. Pop Pop is also an ordained minister. Dubs’ sister, Punkin (Nikkole Salter), is an astronaut, and his father, Wallace Tre Sr. (Kevin Mambo), voted for Donald Trump. Cedric (also played by Kevin Mambo) enters the same woods and park as Free and Dubs. However, he chooses the solace that the woods bring rather than the possibilities of marriage. Xi connects Free to the meaning and importance of Dubs’ ritual of solitude and “thinking” in the park. This enables Free to engage Dubs in a ritual that frees and prepares them both to consider marriage as a life of service that they are called to.
Of course, you need this play. And more than the story arc of the play, you need the ritual of congregational fellowship around which the play is structured. This structure modulates how this audience of strangers interacts with one another and shapes their shared meaning of the play. Doing away with the fourth wall of naturalism and realism is not unusual. It is so common it can be a gimmick. But in We Are Gathered, the elimination of the fourth wall is not just a matter of production style. It shifts the performer/audience relationship from one in which the audience is just watching to one in which witnessing and shared celebration are hoped for, welcomed, and, to a certain extent, expected. At the beginning of the play, the central protagonist Dubs says to the gathered:
You came. Thanks. I didn’t know if you got my … Right now, we are where we think we are … Strangers, Together … I need that … I’m inviting you here to witness.
The characters in this LGBTQ+ play are Black American folks from a Black American culture. This is the same culture that gave us songs and methodology that allowed many of us to survive the brutal viciousness — both physical and psychological — of the American response to Black Americans asserting their right to exist in this country. And the fact that the folks who inhabit this play are survivors and descendants of survivors of such brutality may have something to do with the shape that We Are Gathered takes. This is a methodology that we may be in need of now.
If you surrender to the rhythms of this play, you might be able to witness for yourself what Literary Manager Otis Ramsey-Zöe calls in a program note “the impossibility of laying out the myriad layers within this work.”
Normally, a happy ending is not guaranteed. But with this production, it comes in a big, ecstatic way. At the conclusion of selected performances, attendees who have made prior arrangements will be able to propose to their beloved, renew their vows, or be married in the presence and witness of the audience.
This production is one of those moments in theater when the skills of performers honed over decades, here under the guidance of informed and inspired direction (Kent Gash), are perfectly suited to contain and channel the prophetic channelings of the playwright into something uniquely memorable.
The script makes passing yet resonant reference to several queer literary giants: Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods reminds us of the needful encounter with the Wolf. Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George colors Dubs’ encounters in what he calls “our perfect park.” (When Dubs says about Free, “I could listen to him sing all day,” it feels like an echo of George talking about Dot: “I could look at her forever.”) Larry Kramer’s exploration of shame and wantonness in his novel Faggots is reflected in the couple’s concern about how they first met. And most formidably, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America — in its culturally specific, shamelessly flamboyant, and boldly overt wrestling with faith and spirituality as it shows up in the lives of queer folk and American culture in general — provides a dramaturgical precedent for this piece.
We Are Gathered is an epic poem that focuses on restoring the temple within rather than on dismantling the empire. The spare but elegant set by Jason Sherwood supports that idea. It’s basically a round platform (expansive and elegant, evoking a 22nd-century space portal) encircled by discreet park lights (reminiscent of Art Nouveau).
Similarly, the costumes by Kara Harmon broadcast the characters’ personae before the actors even speak. Free’s clothes are like pastel paintings that drape, caress, and flow. What could have been blue jeans are instead burnt-orange overalls with appliquéd flowers to contrast with his blonded hair. The way his butterfly-like wedding attire explodes from his Village People leather boy outfit is a scene all by itself.
Director Kent Gash guides actors and audience in a dance that balances narrative plot with ritual and participation. This is gracious directing. Nothing feels artificial or forced.
The acting is nothing short of masterful in every role: As Xi and Nana Jae, Jade Jones displays hair-trigger shifts of tonality and intent with clear, strong distinctions between the two characters. Kyle Beltran is heartwarming as Wallace (Dubs) Tre, the slightly nerdy Black man of integrity and faith who is often unable to complete sentences. Nic Ashe is a hilarious whirlwind as the singer and creative artist Free. Nikkole Salter plays Ms. Ms, a teacher, with a bravura comedic touch (it reminded me of The Colored Museum skit “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play”). She also plays Dubs’ sister, Punkin, with authority. Kevin Mambo as Wallace Tre Sr. and Chauncey is both formidable and vulnerable. Craig Wallace in his role as Pop Pop gives gravitas to the entire enterprise.
At the birthday party Free throws for him, Dubs tells his father,
I don’t trust myself to live! I trust myself to survive. That’s it. That’s what I got.
Toward the end of the play, the vulnerable and always optimistic Free goes into the park to look for Dubs. Nana Jae and Dubs, worried about his safety, go after him. While they walk they sing a song that keeps up their spirits and articulates their faith. It’s an unusual song for theater. It was secularized by Holland, Dozier, Holland for The Supremes as “You Can’t Hurry Love.” But here, in the older form summoned up by Free’s grandmother and his lover, it sums up the determination and the leaps of faith required to live when the world is determined to crush you:
He’s a God you can’t hurry, he’ll be there but don’t you worry. I said he may not come when you want him but he’s right on time.
Running Time: Two hours and 40 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
We Are Gathered plays through June 15, 2025, in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St SW, Washington, DC. Tickets are available online (starting at $59) or visit TodayTix. Tickets may also be purchased through the Sales Office by phone at 202-488-3300, Tuesday through Sunday, 12-8 p.m., or in person at 1101 Sixth Street SW, DC, Tuesday through Sunday, 2 hours prior to each performance. Groups of 10+ may purchase tickets by phone at 202-488-4380.
Arena Stage’s many savings programs include “pay your age” tickets for those aged 35 and under; military, first responder, and educator discounts; student discounts; and “Southwest Nights” for those living and working in the District’s Southwest neighborhood. To learn more, visit arenastage.org/savings-programs.
The We Are Gathered program is downloadable here.
We Are Gathered
By Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Kent Gash
COVID Safety: Arena Stage recommends but does not require that patrons wear facial masks in theaters except in designated mask-required performances (Tuesday, May 27, 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, June 14, 2:00 p.m.) . For up-to-date information, visit arena stage.org/safety.
SEE ALSO:
Reflections on an open-hearted open rehearsal of ‘We Are Gathered’ at Arena (feature by Gregory Ford, May 10, 2025)
Arena Stage announces full cast and creative team for ‘We Are Gathered’ (news story, April 9, 2025)
Kyle Beltran and Nic Ashe to headline Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney’s ‘We Are Gathered’ (news story, February 25, 2025)
