In Newsweekly
`Queer Theory' Refreshes Jaded Audiences
By James A. Lopata
October 25, 2006

THE THEATER OFFENSIVE AND SLIPPAGE ENSEMBLE BRING BOSTON AUDIENCES SOMETHING THEY'VE BEEN LACKING: THE RAW IMMEDIACY OF EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE ART

From the Broadway in Boston to the Huntington Theatre Company to SpeakEasy Stage, an abundance of top quality professional theater graces Boston stages.

But there is one area of drama where the cultural capital of New England clearly lacks: experimental performance.

Even the smaller theatrical companies of the Greater Boston area either stage older works in new ways (like last season's Animus Ensemble's wildly successful "Once Upon a Mattress") or new works using traditional formats (like Boston Theatre Works' "Unbound" festival). Where, oh where, are the truly avant garde?

Some of them showed up last week at the Boston Center for the Arts in the form of "Queer Theory: A Musical Travesty."

Here, courtesy of Slippage Ensemble and the ever-inventive The Theater Offensive, a refreshing, innovative, cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary extravaganza came to life. With an enthusiastic audience and an insider feel, the production bore all the best hallmarks of the type of hip, downtown theater scene of which Manhattanites can boast.

Author and director Thomas DeFrantz assembles a widely diverse cast - both in cultural heritage and talents - to put together a show that illustrates the widely divergent approaches to the nascent area of queer theory in academia.

Using a colloquium on queer theory as the framework for this drama, DeFrantz allowed each cast member to strut her or his stuff. Thomas-Andrí Bardwell wowed the audience in a lip-syncing spectacular. Amatul Hannan captured the essence of bull dyke pride as Lilith. Eric Hubert as Jim Bunny embodied the raw physicality of what it means to be queer. Albert M. Chan as Michel provided the most poignant passage in his ending keynote speech. And Margaret Ann Brady grounded the production as the seminar's emcee.

Don't expect "Queer Theory" to fit the Bostonian standard of highly-polished, professional theater. It's not. And thank Zeus for that. It's about time the Hub experienced some raw immediacy in its performances. Let's hope "Queer Theory" heralds more experimentation.

The avant garde shouldn't be queer or a theory to us any longer.

Used with permission from In Newsweekly, New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender newspaper.