The third show in the 2009 ROSS Performance Summer School was La Cage aux Folles. This show, written by Jerry Herman, was deliberately intended to challenge the prejudices of the audience, but do so with charm rather than aggression.
The show is based around a boy bringing his fiancee's parents home to meet his parents. The son is the result of a one-night stand between this father and a chorus girl, but the person who had mothered him through life is his father's gay partner. Her parents are religious (Christian) fundamentalists, totally opposed to the "abomination" of homosexuality.
1. The son's parents run a local Night Club - La Cage aux Folles. They open the show singing "We Are What We Are" Some are men, some are women, but they are made up to make it hard to know which is which. If they were all made up to look masculine, the audience would accept this without any trouble. But they are made up to look feminine, and the audience must ask why that is harder to accept
2. Les Cagelles
3. Jacob - the maid/butler and main comedy figure
4. The son (left) sings of his love for his fiancee (Anne On My Arm)
5. Albin (the mother figure) makes her feelings clear when she learns that the son wants his biological mother to be there when his fiancee's parents arrive
6. There are two romances in this show; so the second major challenge in the show is whether the audience warms to the older, homosexual couple
7. The Can-Can! (the lighting here was very red; I did what I could in post-processing)
8. The finale (again, predominantly red lighting)
Wigs and makeup were done by Steven Metcalf, who worked on the original West End show and many other West End shows since. The transformations he wrought were absolutely amazing.
It was exraordinarily good fun to do this show. And if education is the aim, as it should be at a school, it succeeded amazingly. The sheer mechanics of trying to dance in heels were a challenge - avoiding falling over was the first part long before being able to think of having any panache. And the whole idea of thinking yourself into playing another person took on a new dimension when that other person was in turn trying to be someone else.
This is a show that makes audience members - liberal and illiberal - think about their outlooks and prejudices in life. Taking part in the show certainly made me do so, as well as learning huge amounts about stage technique, how I stand, move and walk, and many, many more aspects of what I do on stage and in life.
A great week!
regards,
/alan
