Mae West's The Drag
The Feral Theatre Company
Originally written by Mae West in 1927; The Drag follows Rolly, a closeted gay man, juggling the facades he must keep up. With drag balls, his ex-lover, and his wife, he tries to stay afloat and live his truth.
Venue: Theatre in the Round (TRP)
Tagged For: Comedy, Drama
Content Warnings: Adult Language, Crude Humor, Loud Noises, Violence, Gun/Weapon Usage
Ages 16 and up
A queer play written nearly 100 years ago by Mae West. OK, I’m in.
Another local theater person made me aware of this script for the first time just a little over a year ago.
Interestingly, it was at one of Threshold Theater’s New Play Reading Series offerings.
And the person who’s adapting and directing this Fringe production, and started The Feral Theater Company, Braden Joseph, was part of the cast of yet another new play reading for Threshold Theater about four months prior to that.
I first noticed The Feral Theater Company when they took part in the Virtual Fringe back in 2020 (in addition to being on the scheduled roster of nightly offerings, I recall they also cranked out a lot of other content that folks could access through the digital Fringe hub. They were very busy during the pandemic.)
I’m intrigued by what Braden and his cast of 10 have done to adapt Ms. West’s source material into a Fringe-sized package. The original script my friend shared with me was only sixty pages long, and yet it was structured as a three act play with 17 designated characters, plus a catch-all line for “detective, guests, musicians at the drag ball” - so, no small feat to get one’s arms around in its original form.
Are we liable to have some “trauma of the secret life of self-loathing homosexuals,” given the time period in which it was written? Probably.
Do I have pretty low threshold for the “homosexual suffering as entertainment” genre? Yeah.
Am I willing to wait and see it myself before passing judgement? Yup.
Here's some handy links to this year's Top 10 list and Top 11-20 list, also a full list of all returning favorites to this year's Fringe, plus a link to all the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.
While I have your attention, please VOTE :)
Minnesota is currently in the early voting period
for our Congressional and local primaries (I had the U.S. Senate,
Congress, and the Minneapolis school board on my ballot) - final day to
vote in the primary is Tuesday, August 13th, but you don't have to wait
until Fringe is over, go vote right now :)
Early voting for the Presidential Election itself in Minnesota starts on Friday, September 20th.
We're lucky to have a lot of time to get our voices heard, so cast your
vote, and then make sure everyone you know and love is registered and
gets to the polls to vote. Election Day, your final date to vote, is Tuesday, November 5th.
As a queer playwright and theater maker, I want a government that's compassionate and competent enough to keep us all safe and healthy, keep theaters open and running, and personally, I'd just like to be legal myself and keep the weirdos out of government and out of my personal business (and the things I post on this blog, for instance). We all have our reasons, so let's make sure we get the leaders we need and deserve, and get our friends, family and co-workers to raise their voices, too.
Find where to vote and what's on your ballot (with links to candidate websites) and other resources at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.
For other resources on how to register, volunteer or donate, locally or nationally, check out Vote Save America.
Vote. Raise your voice. We're not going back.
No comments:
Post a Comment