Reviews 2009
Reviews 2009
✭✭✭✭✭
by Aaron Macri, Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow,
directed by Ron Jenkins
Craddock and Cuckow Productions,
Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto
October 15- 31, 2009
“BASH’d!”, a “gay rap opera”, is a great show. It packs more wit and substance into a mere 74 minutes than most new musicals do in twice that length. Just as female rappers have taken a form known for its misogynist attitude and appropriated it for themselves to criticize misogyny, so the team behind “BASH’d!” has taken the form, notorious for its homophobia, and made it their own.
Creators and performers Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow derive much humour from the initial set-up. The two appear as winged angels in white with pink hats and introduce themselves as the the gay rappers Feminem (Cuckow) and T-Bag (Craddock). They assume the audience is mostly gay and therefore is totally unfamiliar with rap. To help us out they take us through a sample rap and ask if it was too fast and if we noticed it was all in rhyme. Their real purpose is to tell us the story of Dillon (Cuckow) and Jack (Craddock), a love story that they assure is a kind of “Romeo and Romeo”. Dillon is from a small town (population 700) whereas Jack is from the big city. Dillon’s parents are Christian fundamentalists, whereas Jack has two gay dads. When Dillon comes out to his parents, his father throws him out fo the house and he seeks refuge in the big city. Eventually, Dillon’s eyes meet Jack’s across a crowded dancefloor and it’s lust at first sight, soon followed by love. The two take advantage of newly legalized marriage for same-sex couples and are blissfully happy until Dillon is viciously attacked in a gay-bashing incident.
Everything about the show is rapid and precise--the pace of the storytelling, the pace of the rhyme-slinging rappers, the switches of both among multiple characters, sometimes playing each other. It’s dizzying and invigorating and you don’t want to miss a single clever word. The rappers make full use of the licence that minorities have to satirize their own. Jack’s two dads remind him that it’s all right if he doesn’t turn out gay since 90% of the population is hetero. Jack gives his rural friend a crash-course in gayness by parodying all the gay subgroups--twinks, fag hags, bears, chickenhawks, etc.--and lending him all the clichéd must-haves for any gay music collection. When Jack considers proposing to Dillon, the two turn into Jack’s good and bad angel, by arguing the case fr and against gay marriage from a gay man’s point of view. On the one hand it’s a stand for equal rights. On the other, it’s the assimilationists of gay culture trying to emulate straight culture.
The light-hearted tone may seem to turn 180 degrees with the attack on Dillon, but we have to remember that the the two rap angels likened their story to “Romeo and Juliet”, which also takes a tragic turn immediately after the two lovers are wed. We might assume the show is simply against gay- bashing, but, like Shakespeare’s tragedy, it is also a plea against revenge as a “solution” to any conflict. The fact that Jack and Dillon’s story is being recreated by the two rappers automatically gives the show an inherent metatheatrical dimension and when we discover why our narrators are two angels the show takes on the strange form of a Möbius strip.
Craddock and Cuckow’s performances are a marvel of energy and timing. They successful at all the attempt--hilarious, moving and deadly serious as in the show’s coda naming the names of at least twenty men and women who died because of gay-bashing. Aaron Macri provided the varied beats and selected music samples. With a few exceptions Craddock and Cuckow’s hard core mixture of vulgarity and rhyme is unfailingly witty. Kerem Çetinel’s lighting is key to signalling the rapid-fire changes in place and mood. Ron Jenkins‘ direction gives a show that premiered at the Edmonton Fringe in 2007 and went on to a long run Off-Off-Broadway the feeling that is it fresh and improvised on the spot. It justly one the award for Outstanding Musical at the 2007 New York Fringe Festival and 2007 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding NY Theatre Off-Off Broadway among many others. Whether you’re a fan of rap or not, this show is just too good to miss.
After Toronto, the show moves to the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, January 12-31, 2010, before joining the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad February 16 - 20.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Nathan Cuckow and Chris Craddock. ©Ian Jackson.
2009-10-23
BASH’d!: A Gay Rap Opera