Theater & Dance
CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Welcome to Out.com's new theater column, The Clap. We'll be covering noteworthy productions in New York City, with occasional forays into exciting goings-ons in other cities.
What better way to begin than with the high priest of U.S. queer theater, Tennessee Williams? Banish any visions of the Williams you think you know, though. One of New York City's finest and most long-lived experimental theater collectives, the Wooster Group, has tackled one of Williams's later, thornier plays, Vieux Carr', and the results are smashing.
Critics and scholars have argued intensely as to whether Vieux Carr' is an exemplary piece of fraught storytelling or the ramblings of a playwright far past his prime. The Wooster Group's superb production runs through March 13. Here are our top five reasons to catch the show:
5) Portrait of Tennessee as a Young Man Like The Glass Menagerie, Vieux Carr' is a memory play. But even more than many of Williams's plays, Vieux Carr' is especially autobiographical. It's set in a boardinghouse in New Orleans during the Depression, as a young writer wrestles with his sexuality and what it means to be an artist.
4) The Wooster Way One of The Wooster Group's signature aesthetics is its sublime way with multimedia. The stage for Vieux Carr' is riddled with monitors and video cameras, so while the group honors the text, it also refracts the meanings and subtexts of Williams's words through the use of looped video and live feeds.
3) A Cast of Characters The Wooster Group often spends years tweaking and perfecting its shows. As such, the actors in Vieux Carr' embody their roles with astonishing fervor and precision. Ari Fliakos as Williams's surrogate, The Writer, and Wooster Group muse Kate Valk as both the crazed landlady and a woman fallen from the grace are especially good.
2) Race War The Wooster Group upends Vieux Carr's questionable depiction of the Southern patois'speaking Nursie by going full-bore. So, as deftly played by Kaneza Schaal, the character bursts into gospel and stands behind a video screen, where Nursie's features are broadcast to a wide-eyed extreme that mocks blackface.
1) Dildos A Go-Go This production of Vieux Carr' embraces the sexuality at the heart of Williams's tale. The lascivious and lecherous painter Nightingale prances the stage wearing a strap-on; The Writer mimics receiving fellatio as a live feed of him is superimposed on an image of a man giving head. This Williams fever dream is hot.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
38 Male Celebs Who Did Full Frontal Scenes
November 17 2023 5:18 PM
These are all the celebrities Who came out as LGBTQ+ in 2023
December 31 2023 12:19 PM
These Pics Prove Maluma Has Always Been a Certified Daddy
October 20 2023 1:13 PM
32 LGBTQ+ Celebs You Can Follow on OnlyFans
October 25 2023 3:15 PM
26 actors who showed bare ass in movies & TV shows
February 28 2024 1:50 PM
16 Times Celebrity Men Had to Say They Weren't Gay
February 29 2024 1:19 PM
15 Unforgettable Gay Kissing Scenes From TV & Movies
February 14 2024 10:20 AM
13 Queens Who Quit or Retired From Drag After 'RuPaul's Drag Race'
November 24 2023 10:11 AM
40 steamy celebrity Calvin Klein ads we'll always be thirsty for
January 04 2024 10:54 AM
The 15 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of 2023
December 04 2023 10:32 AM
Watch Now: Advocate Channel
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Latest Stories
Meet the reality TV baddies competing on 'House of Villains' season 2
March 27 2024 3:48 PM
Meet Kristen Kish, the new out host of 'Top Chef'
March 27 2024 3:36 PM
24 albums that turn 10 years old in 2024
March 27 2024 2:43 PM
Breaking boundaries in gender-free fashion with Stuzo Clothing
March 27 2024 2:15 PM
Meet Phillip Davis, Johnny Sibilly's new BF who he just hard-launched
March 27 2024 12:49 PM
Meet Ricky & Cesar, 'Amazing Race 36's loveable gay underdog couple
March 27 2024 12:09 PM
March 27, 2024
March 27 2024 12:07 PM
Yvonne & Melissa weren't 'U-Haul lesbians' before 'Amazing Race 36'
March 27 2024 11:38 AM
Iconic comedy 'John Tucker Must Die' is getting a sequel, making Millennial gays very happy
March 27 2024 10:50 AM
'Barbie' star Hari Nef is starring in a biopic about this trans legend
March 26 2024 7:02 PM