"F*ck your gender!"

I just saw Thinking Cap Theatre's production of The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret, at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale. My short review: Really f*cking good.

Not to give away any secrets, but the play is intended to f*ck with your notions of gender roles and identities--look at the title! It does so in a mostly comedic way, though some of it might make you uncomfortable if you think gender is a binary--which is some of what playwright Mariah MacCarthy sets out to do. (Some of it will--and should--make you uncomfortable regardless.) And a play production that accomplishes that--messing with gender roles in a funny but not demeaning way--takes a creative, talented, good cast, and excellent direction and design.

This Thinking Cap production delivers. The actors? They just rock. From the simplest role in the play to the most complex (and really, none are simple), the cast is tremendous. Most of the roles in the Cabaret represent a stereotype--often a necessity in storytelling. With a little help at first, then, with each actor's own mad skills, each character goes from a role straitened by stereotype, at least in the audiences' minds, and becomes unique. There are some characters in the play that I would be friends, or even friendly, with, and some, not so much. But at various points during the evening, I made some sort of emotional connection with every actor on that stage. As for the direction and technical aspects of the play, they were invisible--clear as glass. Making it look that easy... is very hard.

"I laughed. I cried. It was much better than 'Cats.'" Ah, T.S. Eliot, what did he know? Gimme a little f*cking informative entertainment, any time.

Thinking Cap Theatre:

http://thinkingcaptheatre.com/

http://www.facebook.com/ThinkingCapTheatre

(P.S. HT for the title to my good New College friend Eli, who first told me "F*ck Your Gender!" many years ago.)

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