Jerome, the title of an ambitious new play by John J. Caswell, Jr., refers not to an individual but to a remote ghost town in Arizona where most of the story occurs during the early 1990s. Caswell’s drama studies a trio of older men: Con and Doane, a happy, long-committed gay couple now in their 60s and Bruin, a fellow who is perhaps a decade younger. New to town, Bruin is invited by the couple into their bed – the first threesome in their monogamous 28-year relationship. Immediately this nice stranger then moves in with them.
Caswell could develop this promising scenario in all sorts of ways. Perhaps as a psychological drama. Or a comedy about sexy sexagenarians. How about a study of the pressures in polyamorous unions? Caswell’s unfocused and not always credible play attempts with too little success to incorporate all those plots and more.
Jerome might better be retitled Bruin, since its two-act tale hinges on secrets the enigmatic character harbors back in San Francisco. Gay times being what they were circa 1992, viewers more than once are led to presume AIDS will later invade the drama significantly but no, that horror proves a background bogey man rather than what undermines Bruin’s relationship with the others.
More intriguing than Bruin’s ongoing mystery – he suffers a noisy, hellish, not entirely coherent nightmare as act two begins – is how Con, whose health is failing at the start of the play, obviously strives to groom the younger man to be his posthumous successor for Doane. The notion deserves better treatment than it gets here. The playwright sketches Con and Doane as a devoted pair given to cutesy traditions such as observing holidays in quirky ways. They keep a lit Christmas tree all year round in their house that’s built into a cliffside, which perhaps symbolizes the rock-solid nature of their bonds. Augmented by Leah Gelpe’s complex sound design, other vaguely significant symbols are strewn all over Jerome, like beeping watch alarms or manifestations of ghostly miners blasting away deep underground. Presumably they are intended to elevate an emotional triangle that proves awfully square.
At its humorous best, Caswell’s first act offers somewhat cringy amusement when the men gingerly attempt three-way sex. Their bed-breaking encounter is discreetly rendered offstage through comical grunts and exchanges (“Sorry! Foot cramp!”) and the atmospheric lighting strategically designed by Barbara Samuels. Setting aside the puzzlement of why the men are depicted as being far into their middle age, the seriously adult aspects of a long-term throuple situation mostly remain unaddressed. Meandering towards a questionable, upbeat conclusion, a patchy second act finally unpacks Bruin’s long-delayed revelations.
Dustin Wills, who directs the Playwrights Horizons premiere that opened on Tuesday, also serves as the production’s scenic designer. In conjunction with the other designers, Wills handily delivers a striking pair of visual coups (not described here) and otherwise provides effective surroundings. Capable acting bolsters the script. Bruin’s shadowy, erratic character is underwritten but Ken Barnett fills in some of the blanks with good natured ease. Jeorge Bennett Watson is a warm, solid presence as Doane. Enlivening the drama considerably is Stephen Spinella, whose bright-eyed, silver-maned Con is a chatty, eccentric gentleman determined to maintain his whimsical lifestyle as long as possible. In both staging and performances, the fleeting moments of hushed intimacy the men share illustrates how sensuality transcends age.
Jerome opened June 2, 2026, at Playwrights Horizons and runs through June 21. Tickets and information: playwrightshorizons.org
