Straight Mormon Playwright Explores Prop 8, Friendship

Logan Tarantino (right) and Topher Rasmussen star in Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea © Plan-B Theatre Company

‘Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea’ Playing in Salt Lake City through February 10

An LDS playwright is having his new script staged in Salt Lake City. Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea is the coming-of-age story of two friends–one of them openly gay and the other openly Mormon. Set against the backdrop of the passage of Prop. 8, these childhood friends grapple with religion, sexuality, politics, and adulthood.

“As I watched the drama of Proposition 8 unfold in California (and elsewhere), I was shocked by the widespread intolerance and the crippling ignorance that seemed to dominate public and private discourse,” says playwright Matthew Greene, a BYU graduate living in New York City. “I’ve been personally affected by the gay marriage debate in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Some events in the play are pulled straight from my personal history and the rest is based on experiences of those close to me. Of everything I’ve written, this play hits closest to home.”

Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea is playing in Salt Lake City’s Rose Wagner Theater through February 10. For more information, visit Plan-B Theater Company’s website.