Drag Queens Talk about Their Vaginas
Opening Saturday October 30 and running until Saturday December 18
Friday and Saturday Nights Only

Special Sunday Show on Halloween - October 31
(excluding Karaoke night on Sat. Nov. 13 and Sat. Dec. 11)

8 pm $15 or pwyc



eye - 11.11.04
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_11.11.04/arts/onstage.html

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

Lyla and Busty

Producer: Paddy Aldridge
Director/Playwright: Durango Miller
Musical Director: Seraphim
Assistant Director (also assisting with Stage Management): Glenn Walsh

DRAG QUEENS TALK ABOUT THEIR VAGINAS

The play is a comedy about a drag queen named Busty Gobbler who is traumatized by losing her cat and who let's her imagination run away with her when she becomes obsessed with vaginas as a replacement for her pussycat. Many ridiculous slapstick screwball things happen as Busty's best drag friend Lyla Munch tries to help her get a grip on herself. The play is a contemplation of modern societies obsession with superficial vanity and the tragic consequences of striving for what is impossible to attain. The play is one hour in length, and there are four actors and four musical numbers.

Cast

Busty Gobbler: Philip Cairns.
Lyla: James Cairns
Carmalita: Fredy Basri
Nun: Andrea Burck

Bios

Paddy Aldridge

Paddy Aldridge (owner of Wildside) graduated from Ryerson Theater School and less than two years later started Take A Walk On The Wildside. Her love of Theater was put to the side for 18 years. Paddy is so glad to have the opportunity for a theater at Wildside because this is something she enjoys. Come on down and enjoy Paddy’s Playhouse with her!


Durango

Playwright/Director Durango Miller is an artist who has done motion picture set decoration ("How 2 Lose A Guy in 10 Days" for Paramount Pictures); theatre set design ("Cloud Tectonics" Glen Morris Theatre); on-set stills photography (13 weeks of the Canadian sitcom "Lord Have Mercy" for Vision Television/Leda Serene Films); and television videography ("Fashion Cares" for Rogers Television). His photographs have been distributed around the world by the Canadian Press newswire service, and printed in numerous publications, including The Toronto Star, Art Focus Magazine, Xtra, Canadian Screenwriter Magazine, Caribbean She Magazine, and New York Native. He is also the director/screenwriter of the motion picture "A Fine Romance". His next play will be "The Nymphomanic Must Die" in the spring of 2005. Durango Miller is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Fredy Basri

I was born in Jakarta, starting my career as a model (with Carrie Model Asia) and dancer (Studio 26) in Jakarta, Indonesia. I've done lots of commercials in Indonesia (please refer to my resume) as well as print ads. I moved to Switzerland to study Hospitality Management at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and graduated as MHA (master in hospitality administration) in 2002.
Hesitating to go back to my home country, I decided to migrate to Canada in 2003. I landed and stayed in Montreal for 1 year before moving to Toronto 4 months ago (starting on May 1 2004), and decided to become a full time actor. Right now, I am busy with musical productions with some theatres in GTA for the upcoming show this year and next year.
So far, I've done 1 TV series (Queer As Folks Episode 404, as Jordan) 1 musical theatre (Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, as Judah) and 1 operetta ("Trial By Jury", as a Jury Man) within 4 month-period of being an actor in Toronto.

Andrea Burke

Andrea has played a number of male characters in the past, and is thrilled to get to be a girl in this show! She recently appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream for Right Off the Farm Productions, playing Egeus and Peter Quince. Favourite roles have included Toinette, the saucy maid in The Imaginary Invalid, Capri in Short Attention Span Theatre at the Tim Sims Playhouse, and the precocious Shirley Talley in Fifth of July. She has also had roles in a number of independent and student films; her best character name so far has to be Breast Woman.


Philip Cairns

THEATRE: Hamilton Fringe, Toronto Fringe, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, DNA Theatre, Tempest Theatre, Queere Shakespeare (TAGLARC), Upstart Crow Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Solar Stage, Theatre Offstage, Bushwack Theatre & Magic Circus Theatre (Peterborough).

FILM & T.V. : Fluff, Most Guys Today, Transparent: In Through the Out Door, God, Of Urban Myths and Other Stories, Metal Messiah, Game Attics & Hack Kerouac.

T.V. Commercials: Roadrunner Internet, Ontario Big Game Lottery.


James Cairns

Never one to be type casted, James has previously appeared on stage, as the sex crazed stoner Buff in M.Y.T.'s "Suburbia." The sexually confused teenager Jonathan in Integrity Entertainment's "Taken." His film credits include: Moe, the muslim in "The Hotel Room," and the abusive brother in, "The Long Journey." Now, he's the sarcastic drag queen, Miss Lyla Munch. Where he goes from here...nobody knows.

Seraphim

Seraphim is a Toronto-based singer, songwriter, playwright and arts journalist. Possessed of a startling 5 octave vocal range, Seraphim blends classical, pop, jazz and blues elements into intimate songs of human condition.

His one-man play, My Name Is Not Barbra, was first produced in 1996, and has enjoyed successful runs in that Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. My Name Is Not Barbra was the first production for Paddy Aldridge’s new Wildside Living Room Theatre (formerly the Transgender Living Room Theatre) this past summer.

Theatre credits include: Fire, directed by Brian Richmond and starring Thea Gill (Queer as Folk), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Titania), and A Moment of Existence.

Seraphim was the featured vocalist on the soundtrack for Out: Stories of Lesbian and Gay Youth, a National Film Board of Canada production, with Aaron Davis from the Holly Cole Trio. His debut cd, Seraphymns, was released in 2002, and the song Let Yourself In was included on the Fabulous Gay Tunes Volume 2 CD in 2003. His next album, Tongues, is due out in 2005.

Seraphim is a frequent contributor to Xtra! Magazine.

 

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