In “The Destiny of Me”-Larry Kramer’s largely autobiographical play currently at the Next Theatre Company in Evanston through Feb. 20-one actor in particular has been drawing rave reviews.
The portrayal by John Berczeller, wrote the Tribune’s Richard Christiansen, is “always on target in its instincts.”
During the evening, his flashbacked character-the younger persona of a middle-age AIDS activist who has tested HIV positive and checked into a government hospital for experimental treatment-is supposed to age from 14 to 17. Which presented a problem. Berczeller is 28.
“It was very difficult to do,” he says, “but everyone helped me out. I didn’t see it so much as worrying about looking young or acting young, but as just taking what Larry Kramer was giving me-these feelings of confusion and of not knowing who you are or what your place is in the world-so that we all could immediately feel our own youth.”
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His character is “sensitive, smart, very inquisitive, very talkative-and occasionally very obnoxious. I didn’t want to set him up as a little saint, someone who’s being beaten up by his father and is very upset about his sexuality, but as a whole person, so that you might like him. On the other hand, you might think, well, look, because of this and that, he’s . . . a little bit of an idiot.”
A native New Yorker, Berczeller worked in regional theater in Cincinnati before arriving about two years ago in Chicago, where he especially attracted attention in “Black Snow” at the Goodman. “I came here because I was looking for a job in the theater and I also had a girl friend up here,” he says. “I got the job, but lost the girl.”