DRAG QUEENS TALK ABOUT THEIR VAGINAS
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note: We put plays on in Paddy's Playhouse for years. The room is also Aldridge Art Gallery
Eye - November 11, 2004
ON STAGE
Puss 'n' booty
DRAG QUEENS TALK ABOUT THEIR VAGINAS
Featuring Philip Cairns, James Cairns. Written and directed by Durango Miller. To Dec 18. Fri-Sat 8pm. PWYC/$15 sugg. Paddy's Playhouse at Take a Walk on the Wildside, 161 Gerrard E. 416-921-6112.
That utilitarian title is just about the only subtle element to Drag Queens Talk About Their Vaginas, a deeply silly but tremendously amiable comedy playing at Paddy's Playhouse till December. The programme describes DQTATV -- with tongue firmly in cheek, one hopes -- as "a contemplation of modern societies [sic] obsession with superficial vanity and the tragic consequences of striving for what is impossible to attain."
But in case that sounds really scary, DQTATV also features a lot of pussy jokes. As Maude Lebowski says in the Coen Brothers' movie The Big Lebowski, this is a "strongly vaginal" work. Philip Cairns plays Busty Gobbler, a drag queen who becomes obsessed with vaginas as a replacement for her lost -- yeah, you guessed right -- pussycat. There's also a subplot, about a vain, self-obsessed drag queen named Carmalita (Fredy Basri), who may or may not have stolen and killed Busty's pussy -- stop me if maybe you see where this going -- then turned it into a (yes, I know) "furry muff."
The only sensible reaction to that joke, in normal circumstances, would be to turn and flee, leaving only a puffy cloud in your seat, Road Runner-style. But there's something so warm-hearted, energetic and funny about the DQTATV troupe that you're completely willing to forgive it all: the inherent cheesiness of their performances, the antiquity of the play's premise and the fact that most of the gags are roughly coeval with the Big Bang. (It doesn't hurt, either, that the costuming, courtesy of the Take a Walk on the Wildside boutique downstairs from the theatre, is ravishing.)
The thing is, I can't remember the last time I felt better coming out of a piece of Toronto theatre than I did on the way in. Most plays in this town only weigh you down like stale cake; DQTATV, by comparison, is a perfect soufflé. It turns out that this musty old piece of pantomime, performed in an upstairs living room -- short and sweet at 55 minutes -- may just be the most enjoyable near-hour of theatre playing in the city. Toronto: you have been warned. PAUL ISAACS
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