LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART

by McNally, Terrence

Set on the outdoor terrace of an elegant beach house on Fire Island, a brother and sister and their respective spouses attempt to celebrate the 4th of July holiday weekend. Sally is married to Sam, a New Jersey contractor, and she has inherited the house from her brother who died of AIDS. Sam’s hyperactive sister Chloe and her smug aristocratic husband John, have come for the weekend and, amidst the seemingly mundane weekend activities, it becomes apparent that the two men despise each other because John has had an affair with Sally; Sally is panicked and melancholy because she is pregnant and fears a miscarriage, while Chloe seems determined to drive them all mad with her incessant chatter and enthusiasm for Broadway musical comedies. With the shadow of Sally’s brother David hanging over the festivities, they try to divert themselves from the overpowering sense of their own mortality with food, cocktails, fireworks, charades and biting jibes at each other, but over the course of the weekend Sally, Sam, John and Chloe find little to celebrate about themselves or their country on its birthday. “A great find, Lips Together, Teeth Apart is as humane as it is humorous.” [Evening Standard]