Remember the Hardworkin’ Homosexuals (Moynan King, Keith Cole and Jonathan Da Silva), the enterprising group that brought us Cheap Queers year after year?
They’re back with another evening of entertainment on Sunday (February 26) called Explain Yourself!, the first in a new series that creates events around publications dealing with queer literature, performance, theory and culture.
It’s a double launch, not just of the series but also the latest issue of Canadian Theatre Review, edited by King and focusing on queer performance by women and trans artists the publication including the script of Jess Dobkin’s Everything I’ve Got and articles on Trey Anthony, Nathalie Claude, the Boychoir of Lesbos and others.
The evening has artists performing a personal analysis of current queer culture in any form they choose, in a two- to five-minute time slot.
Those taking part include David Bateman, Shannon Cochrane, Cole, Dobkin, Sky Gilbert, Donna Michelle St. Bernard, Mariko Tamaki, Hope Thompson and Spy Dénommé Welch. Dayna McLeod hosts.
And, according to the press release, it’ll be a great place to meet tops.
See listing.
Marathon mayhem
You can’t blame the performers, but the final Ryerson Theatre production, Marathon ’33, was trying in more ways than one.
June Havoc’s play, which ran on Broadway in the 60s and was staged at the Shaw Festival in 1987, is a series of vignettes set at a 30s dance marathon its semi-autobiographical central character, June – the Dainty June figure in the musical Gypsy – is a naive kid who develops streetwise chops over the course of the show.
The script isn’t particularly powerful, and Ryerson’s guest director, Ivica Boban, did it no favours by contemporizing the material, turning the marathon into a reality-show competition with increasingly ruthless eliminations. Paralleling the Depression-era desperation with today’s social, economic and political problems, Boban included images of the G20 clashes in Toronto, live videocam of the stage action and references to celebs like Pamela Anderson and Guillermo del Toro.
It’s an overlay that, while not untrue, does little for the drama.
More successful was the director-choreographer’s decision to draw on music and dance styles from across the decades, ranging from waltzes, ballet and Latin numbers to tap, contemporary pop and hip-hop.
The production’s strength came from the performers, drawn from the Ryerson theatre and dance programs. Everyone threw themselves into the work, their energy always high.
Given that constant outpouring of power, it was easy to believe that the group of 135 couples who begin the contest could be cut down as time goes by after all, the characters dance constantly except for short meal breaks and a 10-minute rest every two hours. They also have to face dance-offs and various types of competitions. Add growing jealousies, both competitive and personal, as well as publicity weddings and other gimmicks, and you get a sense of the stress everyone feels.
Memorable cast members included Katie Ryerson as the initially wide-eyed June and Noah Spitzer as Patsy, her seasoned, adversarial partner, as well as Kira Guloien, Anthony Rella, Kirsten Harvey and Harveen Sandhu as marathon contestants Sandhu played a number of other sharply contrasted figures. Philippe Van De Maele Martin also made an impression as the self-serving marathon promoter.
The cast almost made up for the two-hour-plus performance without an intermission, it sometimes felt – possibly intentionally – as if we were dragging through a marathon ourselves.
The dancing dead
Get your best shuffling dance-steps ready for Zombie Prom, this year’s fundraiser for fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company.
Take that zombie look into a high-school prom evening, complete with dinner and raffles, brain cupcakes, zombie movies and cocktails. There’ll also be music and a cash bar.
Organizers will also choose a zombie prom king and queen.
The event is Saturday (February 25) at the Canadian Stage rehearsal hall. Tickets are $40, with a $30 tax receipt. See listing or write jenna@fu-gen.org.
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