The audience is given a fan as the entry pass to Story Theatre's At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, written by Terry Guest. There is no doubt that we are entering a Southern Black wake. Mahalia Jackson is singing "How I Got Over," and the Donnie McClurkin barnburner "Total Praise" is cued up as the lights go down. She enters! Miss Courtney Berringers (Guest) as Whitney Houston singing "I'm Every Woman" brings the house down. Guest inhabits and owns drag fabulousness as does his costar. Paul Michael Thomson as Vicky Versailles. Mikael Burke does a masterful job directing At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen. The action never lags, and humor is seamlessly woven into the narrative, complemented by pathos.
Courtney wants to glamorize this wake by starting at the apex of a drag career in the city of Albany, Georgia. I have been to a Black wake and funeral in that town, and you should know it is pronounced Al-benny. None of that upstate pronunciation here. In the wings, Vicky Versailles stops the story in his Hunter Grimes voice and tells Courtney to begin at the end. Courtney returns to be Anthony Knighton when Hunter Grimes comes to the dressing room to give effusive praise for the performance. Anthony is not impressed and is downright rude, flicking Hunter away like a flying pest. Hunter perseveres, and the wake becomes a love story.
The performances in At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen are superb. Guest wrote this play in memory of his uncle Anthony and his performance as a Black gay man with AIDS is devastating and beautiful. Anthony embodies a drag persona to be a star in the small filament of Albany. He knows that he will not break out as a national star and lives with the shadow of what was called the Gay Plague.
Equally stunning is Thomson as the man who tries to provide more than a sexual relationship to Anthony. The accents are spot on, and the chemistry between the actors is electric. Thomson's performance of Hunter's devastation each time Anthony rejects him or verbally cuts him down is powerfully subtle. His face tells the story of a man looking to care for someone and truly connect.
The dialogue is frank and authentic. Racial and queer epithets abound, so put on your big girl/boy panties and buckle up. When Anthony describes his mother's hometown of Cuthbert, it is a trip back in time from my travels in the South. From the gold teeth and "full sets"(nails) to the relentless heat and humidity, this is a Southern Black story. Courtney and Vicky have grown up in possibly the worst place in America to be gay. Religion is the backbone of the oppressed, and a balm for the descendants of America's greatest sin of enslaving human beings. Whenever Hunter talks about how alike he and Anthony are because they are gay, he is rebutted and reminded that the horrors of lynching and legally sanctioned segregation top it.
The Black interpretation of religion hovers over At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen. The set design by Alyssa Mohn reflects how religion is theater, and drag is religion for the artists who perform it. A beautiful stained glass window at stage right shines over the urn of Anthony Knighton. The stage is the same as a pulpit, with a fierce preaching of the gospel of sex, life, and death. Spanish moss hangs from the rafters, and the mirrors that line the stage are shaped as church arches. Stage left is the dressing room for Courtney and Vicky, and that is a drag queen's sanctuary.
At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen also pays homage to African ancestors and the fables interpreted for Christian use by those who compiled the Bible. The women that Courtney and Vicky celebrate are goddesses. Putting on their costumes is a form of communion with those who brought so much joy to soothe the pain. How these women lived and died was a sacrifice to give a young boy a place to escape in his mind, and then with his body. The performances feature a diverse array of inspirational figures, including Judy Garland, Whitney Houston, Joan Crawford, Shirley Brown, Anita Baker, and more. Drag can be hilarious, but the art is to pay tribute and respect.
The costumes by Racquel Postiglione, assisted by Madeleine Shows, are no less magnificent than a preacher's flowing black robes. The sequins, wigs, and makeup create a buzz that hit all my senses. I could imagine the smell of the powder, hairspray, and sweat. All of this comes together under Mikael Burke's direction, with Guest's brilliant script featuring two outstanding actors, Guest and Thomson.
The Story Theatre wowed me in 2022 with their Chicago debut of Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes also written and directed by Guest. That show turned stereotypes on its head, as does At The Wake of a Dead Drag Queen. Courtney Berringers and Anthony Knighton are in the same body, feeling the same hurt and exorcising that pain every night on stage. Vicky Versailles and Hunter Grimes transcend the pain in accompanying a soul on its way out. I highly recommend seeing At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen. It's a chance to see more of Terry Guest's superb writing and to celebrate Chicago's endless wealth of talent.
At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen runs 90 minutes with no intermission and has been extended through May 18 at the Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. For tickets and more information on the Story Theatre and the artists, please visit thestorytheatre.org.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
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