‘Fellow Travelers’ at Pittsburgh Opera: The Violence and Beauty of Falling in Love

Fellow Travelers reminds us how much courage it takes to fall in love and of the beauty and liberation that reside within such humaneness. Even with fragility, love amid the Lavender Scare becomes a sacred act of defiance.

11/17/20254 min read

Hawkins Fuller (Erik Nordstrom, left) and Timothy Laughlin (Logan Wagner) get to know each other. (Image by David Bachman Photography)

Read on OnStage Pittsburgh

By Mingsi Ma

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek describes love as “extremely violent,” even “traumatic” and “catastrophic,” because it throws our ordinary lives off balance. He emphasizes the idea of “falling in love” because it is sudden and unconscious, almost like being hit by a car. At the same time, he criticizes love without the fall, such as arranged marriages, marriage agencies, and internet dating, which suspend the risk of falling and turn love into calculation. For him, the secret of liberating love lies in re-normalizing the violence of falling in love. This lens proves an apt tool for understanding Fellow Travelers, in which the tender connection between Tim Laughlin and Hawk Fuller unfolds against the backdrop of the infamous Lavender Scare.

Presented this past weekend, Pittsburgh Opera’s Fellow Travelers captures precisely the extraordinary violence of the fall. An opera by Gregory Spears with libretto by Greg Pierce, it is adapted from Thomas Mallon’s historical novel of the same name and set in the mid-20th century, and later termed as the Lavender Scare, the government sanctioned and actively persecuted LGBTQ+ federal employees who were unjustly deemed security risks, considered vulnerable to blackmail solely because of their sexuality.

As the opera starts, the fledgling journalist Tim Laughlin crosses paths sitting on the stairs with Hawk Fuller, who works for the State Department. Though the world bustles around, Hawk, played by Erik Nordstrom, can’t pull his eyes away from Tim, played by Logan Wagner. Through their eyes and body language, Nordstrom and Wagner capture the unmistakable moment of falling in love. By the end of Act 1, the two have already vividly established the image of the confident and charming Hawk and the slightly meek and shy Tim – “Skippy,” as Hawk affectionally calls him because of his ingenuousness.

It was a challenge to compress the original novel into a mere two-hour performance; therefore, the opera version of Fellow Travelers has a fast storytelling tempo. Still, the opera’s emotional delivery is not affected by the pace, and it maintains its sentimental, touching quality. Without showboating and rather minimalistic, Gregory Spears’ music delicately illuminates the characters’ inner lives, remaining tenderly attentive to their emotional shifts. When Tim gets the fancy new job writing speeches for Senator Potter thanks to Hawk’s introduction, the strings take on a warm, swinging rhythm. And when Hawk shows up at Tim’s apartment, the pair’s excitement blooms into a bright, expanding duet.

Love disrupts Tim’s life and makes him vulnerable. This pious Catholic young man rushes to the church, torn between the guilt of his faith and the excitement of his budding passion, his knees on the floor. Tim’s aria “Last Night” is one of the more challenging passages because of its emotional intensity. Wagner’s singing has a lovely, expansive quality in “Last Night”. Yet, he seems a little nervous during the passage and concentrates on hitting the notes, which leaves less room for effortless emotional expression. With more attention to phrasing and musical breathing, the moment might have landed more naturally.

The Interrogator (Daniel Teadt) grills Hawkins Fuller (Erik Nordstrom). (Image by David Bachman Photography

A few other characters advance the story, amplifying the hidden danger of the Lavender Scare and foreshadowing Tim and Hawk’s relationship. Daniel Teadt plays the interrogator questioning Hawk, suspecting he is gay. The interrogation with the lie detector is absurd, asking Hawk if he’s been to a gay club and testing if he has a “gay accent.” Soprano Shannon Crowley plays Tim’s friend and Hawk’s co-worker Mary Johnson, whose “I Worry” delights the audience with her voice’s resonance.

While the supporting cast lays out the context of the Lavender Scare, the emotional weight of the story still belongs to Tim and Hawk, and the production lives or dies by the nuances in their dynamics.

Tim’s love is pure, unquestionable, and moving: he wants to be with Hawk and receives the unwavering commitment despite the apparent constraint cast on their relationship by the Lavender Scare. Tim’s every “I miss you” carries so much weight that it makes the audience feel his longing and pain – exactly the catastrophe of falling in love.

Still, in this production, regardless of Hawk confessing to Tim about his love, Hawk’s attitude suggests that he keeps love at arm’s length. His flirtatious detachment, sometimes ill-timed comments, and self-serving choices that disregard Tim’s feelings read as a refusal to truly fall in love. Hawk’s love falls into the trap of calculation that Žižek criticizes. What I struggled with, though, is that this avoidance doesn’t feel connected strongly to the pressures from the Lavender Scare, which is supposed to be the key backdrop of this opera. The production doesn’t offer enough of Hawk’s inner world to show how that political climate fuels his fear and dominates his decisions.

Even as Hawk remains a shadow shaped by implication, Tim’s vulnerability makes the catastrophe of love achingly legible and deeply humane. Fellow Travelers reminds us how much courage it takes to fall in love and of the beauty and liberation that reside within such humaneness. Even with fragility, love amid the Lavender Scare becomes a sacred act of defiance.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Conductor: Antony Walker, Stage Director and Concept Designer: Brian Staufenbiel+, Scene & Props Designer: Jacquelyn Scott, Original Costume, Wig & Make-Up Designer: Y. Sharon Peng, Original Lighting Designer: Spense Matubang, Lighting Designer: Todd Nonn, Wig &Make-up Designer: James Geier, Assistant Conductor: Glenn Lewis, Chorus Master: Mark Trawka, Associate Coach/Pianist: James Lesniak, Assistant Stage Director: Dana Kinney*, Stage Manager: Cindy Knight, Assistant Stage Managers: Bee Anderson, Tess Naval, An Opera Parallèle production.

+ Pittsburgh Opera debut, *Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist

Mingsi Ma is a 2024-25 Critical Insight Fellow with Pittsburgh Public Theater and American Theatre Magazine.

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