No Strings (Attached)
Written and performed by Sunny Drake, directed by Gein Wong. Until March 26 at Buddies in Bad circumstances, 12 Alexander St. Buddiesinbadtimes and
Before you enter Buddies in Bad Times’ Cabaret area, an usher lovingly hands you a flower. But just as you’re through the entranceway, another usher confiscates it and arms that you button that says, “1 Min Romance Sober.”
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Here is the setup to Sunny Drake’s show that is one-man dating and intimacy in queer and trans communities. The piece occurs into the fictional framework of a “Romance-aholics” conference, with Drake playing Jimmy, a filmmaker and activist torn between their modern politics and his obsession with love that is old-fashioned. He addresses the audience as other Romance-aholics, telling us tales of their previous relationships and getting together with video variations of himself.
The style at first comes down as a little cutesy, but this is certainly quickly cut through by the cleverness associated with writing as well as Gein Wong’s way, and also by the adult that is no-holds-barred associated with the content. Within seconds, Drake as Jimmy is miming very gymnastic positions that are sexual presenting himself to your market as an “Effeminate-Queer-Pansy-NonMonogamous-SparklyPrincess-SomewhatSluttyKinky-Transsexual-Man.”
For the show Jimmy narrates their battle to navigate the crazy West of today’s scene that is dating. A few of the challenges he faces are specific to his identification as trans: he defines just what he calls “the Craigslist meltdown,” when someone he meets online can’t handle the disconnect between their male sex presentation along with his genitalia, that are nevertheless fundamentally feminine (though Jimmy, because . But there is however also one thing for anybody that has attempted to navigate hookup culture while staying enthusiastic about “the kind of dating in which you, like, talk and stuff.”
Drake is a tremendously attractive performer: he obviously has exceptional real theater training and a remarkable ability become emotionally current while delivering layered storytelling, for which he constantly moves between figures and circumstances. This really is facilitated by affordable set design by Joe Pagnan: a seat, a couple of white draperies, and a dummy by which the impressive videos (by Wong, Laura Warren, Alex Williams and Horie that is hisayo projected.
Jimmy, it emerges, is nevertheless pretty hung through to their ex Brian, but this causes him no end of angst because their politics make sure he understands that their desire to have a relationship that is monogamous incorrect on a variety of amounts: it is a cave-in to heterosexual values and element of a capitalist tradition of control.
Even though the jokes while the clever multimedia devices (live excerpts from an thought reality tv program involving an market volunteer; a funny-scary video clip sequence called the “Monogamy Police”) fly thick and quick, Drake lands topical points concerning the challenges of residing ethically in a global by which one person’s liberation can quickly play a role in another’s oppression.
The show’s twist that is final Jimmy arriving at terms using the way to obtain their lifelong insecurity and narcissism, the truth that produces feeling of the usage paint-stained bedsheets as key props throughout. A puppet makes a belated and entrance that is memorable exposing still another of Drake’s theatrical skills. While this series results in as profoundly thought and honest to Jimmy’s (and presumably, Drake’s) experience, it makes the show a distance from the initial premise and verges in the indulgently healing.
This show, generated by Pink Pluto and Ashes that is eventual to numerous nations before landing at Buddies, where Australian-born Drake happens to be manager regarding the growing creators’ product. Along side Gertrude and Alice into the Buddies’ mainspace it provides another valuable viewpoint on the experiences of queer communities — with a number of laughs and insights on the way.