Maine Masque engaging in ‘The Baltimore Waltz’> Play tackles weighty topic of AIDS with comedy

The waltz is a dance of love. You hold a partner, take steps together, flow with the music of one-two-three, one-two-three. In “The Baltimore Waltz,” which Maine Masque opened over the weekend at the University of Maine, the waltz is also a dance of death. Paula Vogel, who has been nominated for two Pulitzers, wrote the play in 1989 as a metaphorical waltz about her relationship with her brother, Carl, who died of AIDS in 1988.

Two years before his death, Carl had invited Vogel on a European vacation, but personal pressures prevented her from going. At the time, she did not know he was HIV positive. In her play, which tenderly and robustly expresses the love she and her brother shared, Vogel exposes the difficult stages of dealing with terminal illness and all the politics that have surrounded the AIDS epidemic.

But Vogel has some other goals with “The Baltimore Waltz,” too. She does what few playwrights have dared to do regarding this topic; she makes the audience laugh. Set in a sterile hospital room in Baltimore, the dreamscape play is really about Carl and his sister Anna, an elementary-school teacher with ATD, Acquired Toilet Disease — a fatal malady with a high risk factor for elementary-school teachers.

The two leave for Europe to seek out a doctor who may have a cure for ATD. While Anna indulges herself in food and sex, Carl engages in a wild Third Mannish espionage scheme. Together, they dance through the stages of death, which is finally Carl’s death.

Vogel covers a lot of territory in the 30 scenes that make up this 90-minute play. She is a masterful writer, whose cleverness and intelligence fill every moment with provocation. With ATD mottoes such as “Do squat. Don’t sit,” Vogel dabbles in absurdist drama. But she also shows moments of tears and moments of lust which are very real. Thankfully, Vogel eschews political correctness as well as preachiness, and instead uses the cartoonish allegory to directly address the realities of AIDS, safe sex, desire, anger, medical red tape and the language upon which we must rely to express the inexpressible.

Director Patricia Riggin has aptly captured the spunk of Vogel’s writing. Her production is fast-paced, good-humored and sensitive. You laugh, but you also think and feel and grow. Because the play takes place in UM’s Cyrus Pavilion, a small performing space, it achieves an intimacy and warmth that might get lost in a larger setting. Riggin puts some nice spins on the play that make it personable and fun. She also uses overhead projections, terrific music and haunting silences to good effect.

The five-person cast upholds the UM tendency to present some of the most engaging theater in the area. Misty Dawn Jordan has definite spark as Anna. She has a physical confidence and comic timing that really work, and her Cheshire cat smile goes a long way in pulling the audience into her world. Jordan could benefit, however, from using a more naturalistic approach to line delivery. She often gives too much drama to the language, and it detracts from the underlying personal candor of the play.

As Carl, Todd Michael Daley is a charmer. He throws himself into this role with a childlike passion, but never loses sight of the seriousness of his love for his sister. Daley makes you love him instantly because he is gentle and kind and crazy about life.

Scott A. Watson, Andrew H. Lyons and Anthony Pierce amazingly juggle the role of The Third Man, and hilariously flit in and out of supporting roles that include waiters, doctors, spies, lovers, and men about town. You can’t wait to see where they’ll turn up next with a shtick that is almost always delivered with snappy and admirable talent.

“The Baltimore Waltz” is a gutsy play that makes no apologies, and Maine Masque is up to the challenge. The result is a solid night of theater that is both historically significant — we can finally use humor to help us to deal culturally with AIDS — and personally cogent. That is to say: If you’re going to die, you might as well dance.

“The Baltimore Waltz” will be performed at 2 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, and 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre. For tickets, call 581-1773. The performance at 8 p.m. Thursday will benefit the Eastern Maine AIDS Network.