Arts & Entertainment
‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Dear White People’ are compelling new TV shows
‘The Handmaiden’s Tale,’ ‘Dear White People’ are compelling new TV shows
Logan Browning in ‘Dear White People,’ an uneven yet wortwhile new show that premieres this week. (Photo courtesy Netflix)
This week, the resistance comes to streaming TV. Even though these exciting series were in production long before last November’s election, they’ve gained relevance as the new administration reaches the 100-day mark.
The first series is the stunning new adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s revolutionary novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” which premiered on Hulu this week. The story is set in the all-too-near future. In a world where environmental calamities have caused the birthrate to plummet, extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalists have overthrown the U.S. government and established a totalitarian theocracy called Gilead in its place.
Gay men and other enemies of the regime are summarily executed. Women are not allowed to read and are strictly color coded by function. Wives of the elite are dressed in blue; “Marthas” (domestic servants) are dressed in green; and, “Handmaidens” are dressed in red. The Handmaidens, the only remaining fertile women, are forced into sexual slavery, serving as concubines for the ruling Commanders and the Wives.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is narrated by Offred (Elisabeth Moss) who is the Handmaiden for the “Commander” (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski). Moss (“Mad Men”) turns in a brilliant performance in a role of staggering physical and emotional demands. She not only turns in a wonderfully subtle turn as the seemingly composed and serene Handmaiden whose understated gestures convey a world of meaning, but also provides a vibrant voice-over narration and plays “June” in flashbacks of life before the establishment of Gilead.
The supporting cast, including Samira Wiley (“Orange is the New Black”) as June’s lesbian bff and Alexis Bledel (“Gilmore Girls”) as Offred’s companion. is uniformly excellent. Of special note is Ann Dowd who plays Aunt Lydia, one of the “Aunts” who indoctrinate the Handmaidens into their new lives. As a trainer, she is horrifically brutal, but as a midwife, she is surprisingly tender. The amazing ability of Atwood and series writer Bruce Miller to create such fascinating well-rounded characters is one of the great strengths and joys of the 10-episode series.
“Dear White People,” which premieres on Netflix on Friday, April 28, approaches contemporary politics from a more satiric angle. Based on the excellent 2014 movie of the same name by out writer/director Justin Simien, the 10-episode series wells the story of four black students at Winchester University, a predominantly white school. The movie covers freshman year; season one of the series covers sophomore year.
The same characters return (although most are played by different actors), but the continuity between the movie and the show is inconsistent. Troy (Brandon P. Bell) is the pot-smoking son of the dean, struggling to meet his father’s high expectations. Sam (Logan Browning) is the campus radical and host of the hard-hitting radio show that gives the series its name. Coco (Antoinette Robinson) is now an ambitious pre-law student. Lionel (DeRon Horton) is uneasily juggling his identities as a gay man, a journalist, an activist and a black man.
Unfortunately, the series suffers from sophomore slump. The first four episodes are mired in repetitive exposition, rehashing the grotesque blackface party that ends the movie. The series start to gain some traction in episode five, but it doesn’t really catch fire until the final episode (which was written and directed by Simien himself). The writing and directing of the other episodes (shared between several people) is uneven, often lacking the style and substance that made the movie such a delight.
Despite these flaws, the series is still worth watching. Simien and his creative team raise issues that need to be discussed. They are trenchant observers of our contemporary political climate and thoughtfully examine the messy intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality. The acting is strong and there are flashes of great writing.
The 13th annual Hagerstown Pride Festival was held at Doubs Woods Park in Hagerstown, Md. on Saturday, June 21.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater
‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’
‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org
The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise.
As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind.
Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche.
“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”
He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song.
“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.
“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”
In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”
In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.
With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special.
“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.
Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time.
“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”
Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”
He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work.
“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade
Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus
The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fifth annual Pride Parade around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Thursday, June 12.
(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)
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