It’s a joy to watch a seemingly shallow play turn generous and important. Director Scott Shallenbarger treats the scenes in Terrence McNally’s 1994 play, about eight gay friends who spend three holiday weekends in a country home in upstate New York, like memories in the making. Time deepens everything: rather than delivering silly soap opera situations in a summer of loss and longing, Hubris Productions’ three-hour show offers a retrospective rich with the title qualities, especially undeserved compassion and conditional love. An endearing ensemble perfectly suggest friends who know one another well, for good or bad–often better than they know themselves. Like Chekhov, McNally finds a kind of permanence in the transience he treasures. –Lawrence Bommer a Through 8/12: Thu-Sun 8 PM, Center on Halsted, Hoover-Leppen Theatre, 3656 N. Halsted, 773-661-0938, $15-$20, industry shows Sun.
