After a successful run last year in the United Kingdom, "The Pride" by playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell makes its fascinating American debut, compliments of MCC Theater. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.

"The Pride" is an absorbing little drama about some very big topics, particularly what it is to be gay in the past and present. While it may fail to cover any new ground, the MCC production of this British play has every reason to be proud.

The play begins in 1958, and the main characters Philip, Sylvia and Oliver are in the formal dress of the period and engaged in polite, stiff talk.

Then suddenly, the time shifts ahead 50 years. The same three actors still play characters named Philip, Sylvia and Oliver, but the clothing is contemporary and the tone is familiar.

Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell is not interested in science fiction. But by alternating back and forth between the decades, he’s found a very clever way to contrast the gay experience before and after the gay pride movement. To his credit, he reveals cultural collisions on both ends of the spectrum.

For a gay man, the repressive, self-denying 1950s must certainly have been miserable, but the freedom that comes in modern times is not exactly a panacea.

In the 1958 story, Philip and Sylvia are married and Oliver is an author working with Sylvia. There is a discernible tension when the trio first meet, as the men are clearly attracted to one another. Their clandestine encounters are filled with shame and guilt, and Sylvia, caught in the middle, feels utterly betrayed.

In 2008, the sexually-liberated Philip and Oliver have just broken up because, as Oliver reveals to his good friend Sylvia, he has an addiction to unsavory sex.

Happiness in both eras is elusive and even though the play’s message feels somewhat tired, the execution is entirely original and delivered in a captivating production.

The performances are beautifully nuanced. Adam James, in three very distinctly different roles, aces each one. Hugh Dancy as the pragmatic Philip, Ben Whishaw’s more sensitive Oliver and Andrea Riseborough’s spunky Sylvia are sensational, expertly crafting characters that tie them to their counterparts across the generational divide.

Joe Mantello’s fine directorial hand deepens the experience, though judging by some confusion from audience members, he could have distinguished the two eras with more clarity. Nonetheless, "The Pride" is a fascinating work by a new writer whose understanding of the past promises a bright future.