BdP Sell Out

B.d.P. Get U.G.L.Y. Butchlalis de Panochtitlan. Highways Performance Space. 2/24/07.

No, not sell out to the man, sell out the venue. As in, Highways was packed. Which is great for the artists, but not so much fun for audience members waiting to get in. I don't think people were turned away, but I'm not sure. It did mean that the crowd had a decent amount of energy, which always helps the show.

I love the butchlalis shows. They continue to cross boundaries and raise questions in challenging ways. They bring together an engaged audience of interesting, queer, intelligent people. Their experimentation with balancing video and live performance doesn't always work for me, but I appreciate the effort. This particular performance seemed too video-heavy, especially at the beginning. I come to the theater to see live performance, and this time there were only a few short monologue interludes before "Cosa Rara" right before intermission.

Each of the video pieces was interesting, with the real heart being in "Beautiful Torture," an editing of home videos to depict queer fatherhood through Nadine/o's experience of watching and participating in hir girlfriend giving birth. This piece was sweet and heartfelt if a little longer than it needed to be, and oh so personal. I felt as if I were intruding on a very private moment, sharing feelings of love and pride and amazement with the couple who opened up their personal experience for an audience in this piece.

"Cosa Rara," the first extended live piece in the show, was a fascinating if problematic dialogue between Claudia/o as butch lesbian and Mari as a trans woman. You've gotta love the fact that the butchlalis aren't afraid to gender bend and cross dress in girl drag. The shock of Mari decked out in wig and tight jeans had the audience shouting and laughing from the beginning of the piece, but it wasn't necessarily a humorous piece. It started out with the premise that technically a butch woman and a transwoman could legally marry, but proceeded to the transwoman character insisting that she was straight. Which left ambigious the relationship between the two characters if it could be intimate enough to inspire one to propose but distant enough that the transwoman could be anti-lesbian. This whole piece was an interesting thought problem and characterization, but also problematic. Why did they give voice to the transwoman's character and experience but not the butch's? Claudia/o's character was mostly tongue-tied and silent while Mari's talked and danced. What compelling idea in this piece needed to be said by these people at this time and why? Why not have a transwoman write and play this role herself?

After intermission came the strongest and most compelling performance of the show. It began with Claudia/o as an early LA punk rocker and Mari in a fabulous suit as an embodiment of Rubén Salazar introducing the piece. He felt a little bit like Rod Serling. This vignette of a moment in Los Angeles history at the intersection of the Chicano Movement and the emergence of punk was a beautiful confluence of local history and character development. Raquelito played Chonch, a butch barber in East LA, with Nadine/o as Carny, her young "pretty boy" baby butch assistant. Claudia/o comes in wearing a miniskirt and holey fishnets as Betty Basta, punk rocker ("you may be a punk, but I'm punk") to get a mohawk. The historical confluence of resistant identities is fascinating and powerful and by far my favorite part of the evening. I feel that in this piece, the butchlalis have found their groove in exploring the relationship between identity and local history in a way that both informs the audience and entertains them.

Congrats to the butchlalis for another interesting and complex show. I'll certainly keep coming back for more.