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LGBT out front at Fringe

Gay musicals, operas, cabaret and more prominent in theater festival

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Tina Nina, Fringe, Gay News, Washington Blade
Tina Nina, Fringe, Gay News, Washington Blade

Tia Nina has a Fringe show slated for Sunday. (Photo courtesy Fringe Festival)

The Capital Fringe Festival will continue this week and through July 28. The festival features live performances and shows by local actors whose work is promoted by Capital Fringe, a local performing arts non-profit organization.

The festival features a number of performances that address gay themes. ā€œLa Voce to Me,ā€ a gay recreation of ā€œThe Little Mermaidā€ by Jeremy Pace, will be performed on Sunday at 5:15 at the Goethe Institut (812 7th St., N.W.).

Also on Sunday is ā€œPitchinā€™ the Tent: Tia Nina Live at Baldacchino,ā€ showcasing the gender-bending feminist rock band Tia Nina. All of the groupā€™s songs are original, complemented with gritty dancing. The performance is at 3 p.m. at Fort Fringe (607 New York Ave., N.W.).

ā€œSongs From an Unmade Bedā€ is a musical theater and opera performance directed by Josh Redford that reveals a gay manā€™s experiences living in New York. The show is at 2:45 p.m. at Fort Fringe on Sunday (607 New York Ave., N.W.).

ā€œThe Burlesque of Broadway,ā€ by Lola Rose, is a burlesque show with sexy dance numbers to Broadway classics on Friday at 10 p.m. at Fort Fringe (607 New York Ave., N.W.). The show features homoerotic themes and gender-ambiguous costumes.

General admission to each performance is $17. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit capitalfringe.org.

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Out & About

DC Center to host queer market

Clothes, shoes, accessories and other items will be available

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(Photo by Printenfisch/Bigstock)

The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host ā€œMetro Queer Marketā€ on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. at its offices at 2000 14th St., N.W., Suite 105.

Guests will have the opportunity to check out the centerā€™s closet. Clothes, shoes, accessories and other items will be available. 

For more details, visit the DC Centerā€™s website.

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Out & About

Are you a senior who likes to cook?

DC Center hosts lecture on food safety tips

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(Photo by Nadianb/Bigstock)

The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host ā€œSeniors and Safety with the USDAā€ on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 5 p.m on Zoom.

This lecture will cover a variety of topics including food safety tips, leftover safety and more. To RSVP, visit the DC Centerā€™s website.Ā 

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Movies

A writer finds his voice through sex work in ā€˜Sebastianā€™

An engaging, sexy, and thought-provoking ride

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Ruaridh Mollica in ā€˜Sebastian.ā€™ (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

When Finnish-British filmmaker Mikko MƤkelƤā€™s film ā€œSebastianā€ premiered at the 2024 Sundance Festival, he told Variety he wanted his movie to provide a ā€œfrank and honest portrayal of queer sexuality.ā€ Thatā€™s surely enough to lure queer audiences ā€“ particularly gay male audiences, thanks to its gay male protagonist ā€“ with the promise of steamy onscreen sex, and his movie, now available on VOD platforms after a limited theatrical release, certainly delivers on it.Ā 

That, however, is only half (perhaps less) of what itā€™s all about, because, like its title character, it lives in two worlds at once.

In fact, ā€œSebastianā€ isnā€™t even his real name. Heā€™s actually Max (Ruaridh Mollica), an aspiring writer who works a ā€œsurvival jobā€ at a literary magazine while working on his first novel ā€“ a ā€œpseudo-memoirā€ chronicling a gay sex workerā€™s encounters with various clients. Itā€™s not exactly ā€œpseudo,ā€ though; the experiences he writes about are real, gained by advertising himself on a website for gay escorts to obtain ā€œresearchā€ for his book. The results are getting him noticed, and a publisher (Leanne Best) is interested in the completed manuscript ā€“ but he finds his focus being pulled away from his ā€œrealā€ life and deeper into the anonymous thrill of exploring his own sexuality in the safety of an assumed identity.

Itā€™s not just his work thatā€™s affected; among the other things that begin to suffer from his growing obsession are his relationships: with his co-worker and bestie, fellow aspiring writer Amna (Hiftu Quasem); with his conservative mother back in Edinburgh, who already disapproves of his lifestyle in faraway, hedonistic London; and to a much older client (Jonathan Hyde) with whom ā€œSebastianā€ has developed an unexpected emotional attachment. Most of all, itā€™s his own sense of identity that is caught in the conflict, as he tries to keep both sides of his double life together while preventing his whole world from falling apart.

Itā€™s a story with a lot of irons on the fire ā€“ a quality it seems to share with the novel its protagonist is writing, much to the irritation of his would-be publisher. What begins as the saga of a fledgling male escort ā€“ we first meet Max during his first booking as ā€œSebastian,ā€ after all, suggesting almost from the start that it is this persona that is our true protagonist ā€“ soon shifts into that of an ambitious-but-frustrated young author attempting to fuel his creativity through lived experience, laced with the ongoing thread of his own sexual awakening and self-acceptance. It even makes overtures toward an unexpected (and unorthodox) love story, before venturing down a darker path to become something of a cautionary tale, a warning against the dangers of leading a compartmentalized existence and allowing the gratification of oneā€™s personal appetites to overshadow all the other facets of our lives. Along the way, it throws in some commentary about the tense dynamic between creative expression and commercialism in the arts, not to mention the reinforcement of stigma and negative attitudes around sex workers ā€“ and sex in general ā€“ through the perceptions and representations created by social traditions and popular culture.

This latter perspective might be the key to what is really at the heart of ā€œSebastianā€ all along, toward which MƤkelƤā€™s screenplay hints with a description of Maxā€™s work-in-progress as being about ā€œthe shame of being ashamed.ā€ From the beginning, it is his own fear of being found out that becomes his greatest obstacle; far more than his reluctance to cross lines heā€™s been raised to respect, itā€™s the dread of having his reputation and his prospects shattered that causes him to waver in his path ā€“ and that feeling is not unfounded, which is in itself a telling indicator that the power of social judgment is a very real force when it comes to living our authentic lives. Indeed, his personal taboos are quick to fall away as he pursues his undercover ā€œresearchā€, but the guilt he feels about being caught in a social position perceived as ā€œbeneathā€ his own is something he cannot shrug off so easily. With so many generations of religious and societal dogma behind them, such imperatives are hard to ignore.

Yet, thereā€™s yet another aspect of ā€œSebastianā€ to discuss, that, while it is self-evident in the very premise of MƤkelƤā€™s movie, might be easy to overlook in the midst of all these other themes. A story about someone pretending to be someone else is inherently about deception, and Max, regardless of his motives, is a deceiver. He deceives his clients to obtain the material for his writing, and he deceives his employers and his publisher about where he gets it; he deceives the people closest to him, he deceives potential romantic partners ā€“ but more than anyone else, he deceives himself.

Itā€™s only by becoming honest with oneself, of course, that one can truly find a way to reconcile the opposing sides of our own nature, and that is the challenge ā€œSebastianā€ sets up for its protagonist, no matter which name he is going by in the moment. Whether or not he meets it is something we wonā€™t spoil, but weā€™ll go as far as saying that a breakthrough comes only when Max is forced by circumstance to follow his instincts and ā€œget honestā€ with someone ā€“ though we wonā€™t tell you who.

In the end, ā€œSebastianā€ satisfies as a character study, and as a journey of self-acceptance, largely thanks to a charismatic, layered, thoroughly authentic performance from Mollica, a Scots-Italian actor of tremendous range who convincingly captures both sides of Maxā€™s persona and transcends them to create a character that incorporates each into a relatable ā€“ if not always entirely likable ā€“ whole. MƤkelƤā€™s steady, clear-eyed direction helps, as does the equally dignified and vulnerable performance from veteran character actor Hyde, whose chemistry with Mollica is as surprising as the relationship they portray in the film.

Even so, ā€œSebastianā€ suffers from the many balls it attempts to keep in the air. Though it aims for sex-positive messaging and an empathetic view of sex work, it often devolves into the kind of dramatic tropes that perpetuate an opposite view, sending mixed messages about whether itā€™s trying to diffuse old stereotypes or simply reinvent them for a modern age of ā€œdigital hustlers.ā€ Further, in its effort to offer an unfiltered presentation of queer sexuality, it spends perhaps a bit more screen time than necessary showing it to us as explicitly as possible while omitting all but a glimpse of full-frontal nudity, but just enough to conjure the word ā€œgratuitous.ā€

Donā€™t get us wrong, though; MƤkelƤā€™s movie ā€“ only his second feature film effort to date ā€“ is an engaging, sexy, and ultimately thought-provoking ride, even if its tangled ambitions sometimes get the better of its narrative thrust, and it comes with our recommendation.

Itā€™s just that, one of these days, weā€™d really like to see a movie where sex work is honestly portrayed as a job, just like any other ā€“ but I guess weā€™ll have to wait until society is ready for it before we get that one.

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