If you ever got bored during a history lesson there is a good reason why. It simply wasn’t mischievous enough. Mark Daniels‘ historically-based story Mary Lacy Woz Queer has bags of jaunty mischief to help share its gender-blurring lessons.

Self-named student Krissy (Naz Simsek), parent named Kristine, is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Or tries to. But they are encountering resistance from the most important person in their life, their Uncle Paul (Isambard Rawbone), who has been a parent figure since the death of Krissy’s father. Desperate to get through to his very literal brain Krissy tries various natural analogies to help him understand. When the gay penguins of Central Park Zoo fail as a teaching device by turning heterosexual, Krissy finds a local historical example in the body of parent-named Mary Lacy, who is self-named William Chandler. Chandler (Rosanna Suppa) left their home in Deptford in the 18th century and became a shipwright, living as a man to everyone they worked with. 

The mischief comes in the way the story is told. Krissy goes on a pilgrimage to what is believed to be the home of Mary Lacy/William Chandler in Deptford. Taking the memoir that Lacy/Chandler wrote Krissy stands before the hearth of the house and begs some advice on how to communicate their identity. It turns out that the chimney, the embodiment of Mary/William,has rather a lot to say on the subject. 

It’s all very meta. The chimney is the voice of Mary/WIlliam and also the invented voice in Krissy’s head of who they imagine the 18th century Mary/William to be. This allows delightful fun with the language of the 18th century through the mangle of the contemporary vernacular. Suppa enjoys playing with it all, like a smart kid with good Lego, and the gusto is contagious. 

While the moral of the tale is achingly familiar, Just Be Yourself!, the writer Daniels leaps over the inherent limits this places on storytelling with quirky original ingredients while Director Miko Chrobot keeps the pace fresh and fun. It’s a hearty romp through history and gender that skips merrily over the lecture.