JERKER Gets its New England Premiere at the Provincetown Theatre Next Month

The Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts has announced that New York actor Joe MacDougall and BBC Word on the Street TV star Stephen Walker will appear in the New England premiere of Robert Chesley's daring gay classic Jerker. As directed by Provincetown Theater Artistic Director David Drake, Jerker starts performances on August 1 and will play Mondays thru Thursdays at 7PM thru September 1 at the company's playhouse at 238 Bradford Street in Provincetown, MA. Tickets can be purchased at provincetowntheater.org. Or by calling the box office at 508.487.7487. Note: the production includes profanity, sexual situations, and nudity. It is for mature audiences only.

THE PLAY: Set in San Francisco in 1985, Robert Chesley's Jerker charts the course of a sensuously intimate relationship between two gay men who never actually meet in-person, but rather develop a romantic friendship exclusively via the oft-ridiculed use of phone sex.

Upon its 1987 off-Broadway debut, the New York Times keenly observed: "Jerker accurately bills itself as 'a pornographic elegy with redeeming social value' and its gamy language and simulated autoeroticism are definitely not for squeamish tastes. But they serve a poignant purpose by pointing out, more bluntly than any other play dealing with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, how the epidemic has threatened one of the fundamental reasons for an entire group's very existence - its freedom of erotic expression - and challenged its hard-won self-esteem."

THE ACTORS: Born in Boston, based in New York, Joe MacDougall is well-known to Cape theatergoers from his critically acclaimed performances in the starring roles of The Elephant Man at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, and in Lonesome Planet, Salome, and The Normal Heart at the Provincetown Theater. Most recently, MacDougall was featured in Todd Flaherty's feature film Chrissy Judy, which world premiered at the 2022 Provincetown International Film Festival.

Stephen Walker made his feature film debut in his native England while a teenager in the hit movie Different for Girls. Growing into adulthood, Walker worked as an actor in TV commercials, television shows (including four seasons on the BBC's popular Word on the Street series) and occasional movies (including Kinky Boots) in the U.K. The actor most recently appeared in the feature film A Wedding Most Strange, which screened at the 2022 Montreal Film Festival. Currently, he makes daily video reports for Out Magazine's online series "Pride Today." Jerker marks Walker's U.S. stage debut.

THE OBSCENITY CONTROVERSY: At the very start of its life, Jerker was at the center of an obscenity controversy when Pacifica Radio affiliate KPFK broadcast excerpts from the play on August 31, 1986. A Christian minister named Larry Poland filed a complaint with the FCC the next day. Poland claimed to have tuned into the broadcast accidentally and, said it "did violence to [him] and [his] family." He continued, "They potentially took away my control of being able to protect my children from learning about certain sexual practices at certain times in their lives." Chesley responded, "Prudery kills, on the radio or anywhere else.... Nobody ever died from being offended by what they see or hear."

The FCC ruled that the broadcast was indecent and possibly obscene. The FCC sanctioned the station, and implemented new, more stringent broadcast indecency guidelines.

THE AUTHOR: Robert Chesley is the author of 10 full-length plays and 21 one-acts. In 1984 in San Francisco, Chesley's Night Sweat became one of the first plays (if not the very first) to place AIDS onstage in America. Following up with Jerker in 1986, the play world premiered at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles directed by Michael Kearns, then moved into a 9-month run off-Broadway in New York City at the Sanford Meisner Theater, followed by a UK premiere at London's Gate Theatre directed by Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry. In 1990 at the age of 47, Chesley died of AIDS. In his honor, the Robert Chesley Award for Gay and Lesbian Playwrighting is annually given by the Publishing Triangle.

Jerker performs August 1 thru Sept 1, playing Mondays - Thursdays at 7PM at the Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street in Provincetown, MA 02657.

Tickets can be purchased online at provincetowntheater.org. Or by calling the box office at 508.487.7487.

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