A Dynamic `Andre's Mother' Will Reach Out And Touch You

``Andre's Mother,'' PBS' ``American Playhouse,'' 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Channel 9.

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When television has dealt fictionally with AIDS, it has, in its nervousness, preferred heartbreaking stories about small children who acquired AIDS through blood transfusions. It behaved as if we all turned to cleaning up the blood supply, AIDS might just disappear.

Documentaries, everything from Channel 9's look at how AIDS affected a community in Indiana and PBS' ``AIDS Quarterly'' to HBO's moving documentary about the AIDS quilt, have been a lot more honest in depicting AIDS, as has British TV, which created a couple of good dramas, including ``Sweet As You Are,'' a powerful little movie about the effect AIDS had upon a heterosexual marriage.

Fictionally, only NBC's ``An Early Frost'' dealt with homosexuals and AIDS - and it pales in comparison with Terrence McNally's ``Andre's Mother.'' McNally packs more of a punch into an hour than ``An Early Frost'' did in two. (Interestingly enough, Sylvia Sidney appears in both, playing nearly identical roles: the feisty, speak-the-truth grandmother who is supportive of the young man who is dying - and accepting of his homosexuality.)

``Andre's Mother'' isn't only about AIDS. In fact, it's a great deal more about acceptance and love and tolerance within families. (It would also be a good program for Andy Rooney to watch, although he'd

probably hate it.)

And ``Andre's Mother'' is also noteworthy because of two outstanding performances (as well as a number of equally fine peripheral ones), specifically, Sada Thompson in the title role and Richard Thomas as the lover of Andre, the young gay man who dies of AIDS. Neither has done better work.

McNally's play is structurally tricky but effective. As the film opens, we're at a memorial service for Andre, arranged by Cal and attended by a tight-lipped Katherine, Andre's mother. Through a series of flashbacks we learn more about Cal and Katherine's first meeting, about the families of both young men, and about the pain both Cal and Katherine are experiencing.

When Cal tries to explain to Katherine, in a key scene, that they both share a bond through that suffering, because both of them loved Andre, the writing by McNally is the dramatic equivalent of an aria - and Thomas delivers it with powerful anguish and effectiveness. But the drama remains so honest that, in the final moments, we're not sure whether Cal has gotten through to Katherine or not.

It would have been easy for director Deborah Reinisch to indicate some kind of reconciliation between the two characters - but it's more believable by leaving the situation unfinished, to make the viewer wonder what the eventual outcome will be.

By never having Andre appear in the film, McNally keeps the focus on Katherine and Cal and it is really their story, an exploration of their attempts at understanding each other. And despite the seriousness and pain of the subject, McNally often approaches it with humor. The scenes between Katherine and her outspoken mother, played with great panache by Sidney, are rich with subtext, in which Sidney probes her relationship with her daughter while subtly alluding to Katherine's relationship with Andre.

And McNally also finds humor in the memorial service as Andre's friends, who obviously loved him very much, have numerous funny incidents to recall about Andre and his acting career. There's even humor in the awkward moments between Kathrine and Cal.

Sharply-drawn characterizations of Cal's father (Richard Venture) and Cal's sister (Haviland Morris) also lend depth to the drama.

McNally describes his play as going beyond AIDS: ``It's really the story of two people brought together by a terrible experience. AIDS forces us - all of us - to be more honest with ourselves and in our relationships.'' He could not have hoped for a more communicative performance than it receives in this ``American Playhouse'' production.