<strong>Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir<br></strong>Gay’s Calamy is eply unfortable wh femy a show which the men are aquate and the women she
Contents:
- VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
- CALAMY JANE REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY RIS HIGH ON LGHTER WBOY BARET
VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
" Celebrated as Hollywood's great gay anthem, Doris Day's tenr and exuberant performance explos the nce of the 1953 movie Calamy Jane. There is no other moment all of Amerin cema that exprs the joy of gay liberatn better than this. First, she played a part "Call Me By Your Name" producer Tom Dolby's sophomore feature "The Artist's Wife" 2019.
It’s also somethg Virgia Gay has spas, an actor who shot to natnal fame televisn shows such as All Sats and Wners & Losers, but whose pth of talent is bt experienced live on stage. “When you do whout a nose, ” Gay explas, “ be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage, but they have cid that, for some reason, they are not worthy of love” urse, when you st a woman the role, that “some reason” tak on a distctly queer ronance. Stg the dience for the first half of the play, Gay thought: “I have to play this role.
”Virgia Gay on playg Cyrano: ‘When you do whout a nose, be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage. I won’t be a part of a story that says, ‘kill your gays’. ” Which is not to say that gay characters n’t partake the tharsis that om high tragedy; Gay simply don’t thk that’s what dienc want the midst of a global crisis.
CALAMY JANE REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY RIS HIGH ON LGHTER WBOY BARET
” So Gay did, surg every adaptatn (cludg unofficial film versns such as Roxanne and The Tth About Cats and Dogs) for the aspects of the story she wanted to foreground. “The first three acts of Cyrano are prototypil rom-, ” Gay says.
“If you have a femist and a queer woman wrg this story, and wrg about and for a Roxane who is gasl, tfished and manipulated by another woman, ” Gay extrapolat, “then be very difficult” answer was to bolster and empower the role of Roxane, so that she be a te equal to Cyrano, able to parry and thst the war of ws. Goos believ the same will happen wh Gay.
And Melbourne’s tentative, almost reticent return to the theatre is echoed the stcture of Gay’s adaptatn: “Six actors return to the theatre and try to remember how to put on a show, bate the rponsibili of tellg this story. ”Gay wrote her Cyrano while sufferg om Covid Los Angel – “a tly rotten 14 days of tense pa” – and the rult is a work fed wh the sensatn of spend longg, but also of hope fulfilled. Directed by Richard Carroll, the productn stars Virgia Gay (Channel 7’s All Sats and Wners & Losers) as the magic, mascule heroe – joed by a ragtag band of acclaimed edic actors and micians who share all the other rol.