No Strings (Attached)

Written and performed by Sunny Drake, directed by Gein Wong. Until March 26 at Buddies in Bad circumstances, 12 Alexander St. Buddiesinbadtimes and

Before you enter Buddies in Bad Times’ Cabaret area, an usher lovingly hands you a flower. But just as you’re through the doorway, another usher confiscates it and arms that you button that says, “1 Min Romance Sober.”

This is actually the setup to Sunny Drake’s show that is one-man dating and closeness in queer and trans communities. The piece occurs within the fictional framework of a “Romance-aholics” conference, with Drake playing Jimmy, a filmmaker and activist torn between their modern politics along with his obsession with traditional love tales. He addresses the audience as other Romance-aholics, telling us tales of their past relationships and getting together with video variations of himself.

The idea at first comes down as a little cutesy, but that is quickly cut through by the cleverness of this writing and of Gein Wong’s way, and also by the no-holds-barred adult nature of this content. In a few minutes, Drake as Jimmy is miming extremely gymnastic intimate roles while presenting himself towards the market being an “Effeminate-Queer-Pansy-NonMonogamous-SparklyPrincess-SomewhatSluttyKinky-Transsexual-Man.”

Through the show Jimmy narrates their find it difficult to navigate the crazy West of today’s dating scene. A few of the challenges he faces are specific to their identification as trans: he defines exactly just just what he calls “the Craigslist meltdown,” when someone he meets online can’t handle the disconnect between their male sex presentation along with his genitalia, that are nevertheless basically feminine (though Jimmy, because . Continua a leggere