Provincetown, the tiny speck at the end of Cape Cod, which is not only the summer base for QUEERGURU, it is also essentially one of the friendliest and culturally queer cities in the US … and even around the globe. As it emerged cautiously out of the Covid Lockdown this summer, it still managed to produce a packed program of events and theme weeks, that helped the town really come back alive.
It’s actually very tough though trying to single out just one highlight of a very busy season, but yesterday, on a very sunny Sunday afternoon, sitting on the deck of the Boatslip Resort overlooking the ocean we enjoyed a quintessential PTown experience.
It was the last day of the annual Tennesse Williams Theater Festival dedicated to the celebrated queer writer who spent some glorious summers here in the 1940’s. This year’s Festival had chosen Censorship for its theme, and we had already watched two spellbinding performances by Penny Arcade, the undisputed queen of performance art, and no stranger to the subject.
Today however as part of an enthusiastic sold-out crowd we saw a new production of Mae West’s infamous controversial play SEX from 1926 which actually landed the sex symbol in jail. Now no longer subject to the stringent censorship of Ms West’s day, it is still shockingly funny and one of the best campy plays we have seen in a very long time.
This comic farce about the double standards of sexual morality gives the 4 actors* in this production playing a myriad of roles. a golden opportunity to really ham it up which they do so splendidly. They are members of The Goat Exchange a new international ensemble that produce site-specific, crazy potatoes theater and irreverent reappropriations of classic dramatic texts and verbatim transcripts.
Sitting there on the deck and watching their joyous performance in the sun with the waves batting up at the sides of the deck, is something that could only happen here in PTown and will remain with us as one of the best memories of this summer at least.
(The production photos were taken by Maria Baranova. on the Opening night)
Sex by Mae West directed and designed by Mitchell Polonsky created by Mitchell Polonsky and Chloe Brooks Cast : Mia Gentile, Jacob Roberts, Zarzeses Wade and Juliana N Sass The Goat Exchange NY Provincetown Tennesse Williams Theater Festival
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