Lanford Wilson, 1937-2011

Lanford Wilson wrote with gentleness and fury about everyday people, often facing the ends of their eras. His death at 73 Wednesday, from complications of pneumonia, feels like the end of one, too.

Wilson, who won his Pulitzer Prize for "Talley's Folly" in 1980, was a master of lyric naturalism and a spiritual heir to both the poetic Tennessee Williams and the prophetic Anton Chekhov.

Although this decade knows him only through revivals, he and director Marshall W. Mason were stupendously productive and influential in the '70s and early '80s, collaborating on more than 50 productions. They opened a major new play almost every year at the late lamented Circle Repertory Theater, their creative cauldron at Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village. Wilson and Mason left in the mid '80s. The company closed forever in 1996.

William Hurt, Jeff Daniels, Christopher Reeve and Swoosie Kurtz made their reputations with Wilson's rich and compassionate words in "Fifth of July," a post-'60s reunion drama that, in 1978, predated and transcended all Hollywood's big-budget big-chill movies.

Wilson, a longtime resident of Sag Harbor, was first identified in the gritty and tumultuous off-off-Broadway of the '60s, a coming-of-age world that also shaped the futures of Sam Shepard and Terrence McNally. Wilson wrote gay characters before they were considered a political statement and, though later pigeonholed as an old-fashioned dramatist, experimented with unconventional forms.

And actors cherish what he gave them. Robert Sean Leonard, who played the crippled Vietnam vet in the Signature Theatre's wonderful revival of "Fifth of July" in 2003, spoke lovingly yesterday of his "heightened poetic realism." The actor, who opens on Broadway next month in "Born Yesterday," marveled that Wilson was "so audacious and beautiful and poetic and shockingly brave." He said the last line of the play, in which his character talks about the future, "sums up why I act."

Born and raised in small Missouri towns, Wilson had some of his biggest successes in rural porch plays accompanied by cricket tapes. "Talley's Folly," starring Judd Hirsch and Trish Hawkins, was a feel-good, middle-aged small-town courtship between a Protestant woman and a Jew.

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But it would be a big mistake to limit him by the gentleness of those landscapes. Memorable urban lowlife exploded through his first-full length play, "Balm in Gilead" (1965) and through one of his most famous works, "The Hot L Baltimore" (1973).

Although most admired for his poetically realistic style, many of his plays were provoked by big-picture thoughts about the universe and the ancients. Whatever the content, the consistencies were deep disillusionment, aching idealism and a joyful sense of play.

In 1984, a Chicago actress named Laurie Metcalf had a head-turning New York debut as an inarticulate hooker with a 20-minute monologue in a revival of "Balm in Gilead" directed by a young star in the heat of his Broadway ascent, John Malkovich.

“It was Lanford's writing in “Balm in Gilead” that showed us how a funny, clueless, brash character named Darlene could affect an audience in such a tender way,” said Metcalf, who opens next week in a new play, “The Other Place,” at MCC Theatre. “Twenty-seven years later, I still meet people who were moved by the production.  Interpreting his Darlene was an honor.”

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In the introduction to his trilogy about the Talley family, Wilson explained the genesis of "Fifth of July." He talked about the "frustration I was experiencing at the complacent state of the country after the activism of the '60s and early '70s. . . . One almost had to admire the beautifully finessed betrayal of the peace movement. America has a way of turning something fine into bunk -- or more likely into a buck. If African-Americans, finally in union, cry, 'Black is beautiful,' within a week it will be a new shade of lipstick."

In "Fifth of July," a woman at the reunion tries to explain to her daughter (that is, explain to the future) that ’60s activism was real and not a fashion trend. “You have no idea the country we almost made for you,” she says. Wilson left us lines like that to remind us what humanity and the theater can do.

Sag Harbor will miss him

As part of its 2010 summer season, Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, where Lanford Wilson made his home, presented the last in his Talley trilogy, "Fifth of July," which the author attended on opening night. In October, Bay Street staged a workshop performance of "Raindogs," a new musical based on Wilson's "Balm in Gilead."

"The loss of Lanford Wilson will be felt very deeply not only at Bay Street, but also in our community in Sag Harbor," Sybil Christopher, co-founder of the theater, said yesterday.

Wilson, an avid gardener and collector of folk and outsider art, had been a familiar face around Sag Harbor since moving there in 1970.

"Lanford was a wonderful fixture here in town and we were fortunate and privileged to have been able to collaborate with him over the past 20 years," said Murphy Davis, co-artistic director with Christopher.

"We will miss him greatly but his work and his art will always be an inspiration to all of us," Christopher added.

-- Steve Parks