Like a typical family sitcom, Harbor doesn’t have a single star character. It combines consequential drama with enough comic bits to pass for comedy until the second act turns serious indeed. Part of the family being gay, however, always weighs heavily on the action. A jalopy brings driver Donna (Summer Dawn Wallace, one-note trashy) and her teen age daughter Lottie (Jen Diaz, no mental slouch) to drop in on Donna’s estranged brother Kevin. He (Marc Bitler’s likable would-be novelist) shares an estate with his partner of 10 years, architect-owner Ted. As impressive in achievements as is his home, Creg Sciavi’s Ted lovingly shares it with Kevin, believes in his talents, and shuns the idea of having any other family. Liquor-and-pot-loving Donna isn’t welcome though skeptic, basically self-educated Lottie impresses by having read Virginia Wolfe and Edith Wharton. To make up for Ted being harsh to Donna, whom Kevin can’t help acknowledging, Ted invites her and Lottie to stay the night. Donna, who is pregnant, plots to leave only after making the guys’ life complete by giving them her baby to live with and love. For months Donna works on Kevin while Ted begins to appreciate Lottie. She finds out and phones her own father. Emotions run high--none so much as when Kevin and Ted get away together on a park bench to talk. This scene profoundly affected a gay friend of mine who attended the performance. I felt it was the climax, a highlight that lifts the tone of the play. Greg Leaming had his work cut out for him in directing a number of scenic pop-outs showing actions outside the Sag Harbor mansion that turns out not to be a safe harbor for the two men. He has his actors handle all well enough. Steven Kemp’s design for the mansion living room is understatedly elegant in symbolic blues with white for decor and furnishings. However, the set doesn’t need a wood frame, which makes people sitting on house right unable to see and even hear the men at the desk etc. they use for an office. Ted doing the main room decorations and gifts for a birthday party in pink signals a major dramatic change. All of the technical effects reflect what happens when throughout. And costumes really designate character.
