Considering how effective theatre can be at taking the world and shifting it in such a way that an audience will see everything from a fresh perspective, one can't help but wish that it would do so more often.
If it did, then shows such as BASH'd! would be the norm and not a theatrical anomaly.
Born on the Fringe circuit and refined on stages from Edmonton to New York, BASH'd has finally returned to Toronto for a mainstage run at Theatre Passe Muraille (where it opened Thursday), putting more than a bit of rocket fuel into the launch of a brand new season at the venerable old theatre.
Subtitled A Gay Rap Opera, BASH'd! shakes things up from the get-go, letting us know in its very title that its going to attempt the near impossible -- the mixing of the oil of the often homophobic and misogynistic world of rap with the holy water of opera, where, if cliches are to be believed, gay men swoon and the heroines rarely make it out alive.
And in a world where truth in packaging is all but extinct, that's precisely what they do -- although one suspects that it will be some time before BASH'd makes it to the stage of the Four Seasons or earns a slot on Saturday Afternoon At The Opera.
Because, frankly, the emphasis here is primarily on the world of rap, which means that creators Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow (in the roles of gay rappers Feminem and T-Bag) tread some pretty profane and sexually explicit turf in spinning out the pseudo-tragic tale of Jack, a well-adjusted young gay man from Edmonton, and Dillon, a gay man from rural Alberta just finding his way in the world.
The two meet, marry and settle down to live happily ever after in an opening sequence filled with in-your-face sexuality and a loopy, lovable charm.
But just when an audience might believe it's got a handle on this show, Craddock and Cuckow shake things up again, throwing gay bashing, vigilantism and a bit of old-time, new-age religion into the mix. And once they've shown us our world from a new perspective, they wrap things up with a heartfelt demand not for tolerance, but for simple mutual respect in the face of our differences.
Simply staged -- it was, after all, born in a Fringe trunk -- the work is briskly paced, thanks as much to the smooth direction of Ron Jenkins and the driving beats of Aaron Macri as to the high take-no-prisoners quality of the performances.
What's more, it still feels remarkably fresh, thanks to subtle tweaking from its creators, who are apparently determined to keep things up to date and politically edgy despite its long and peripatetic run.
Now, if they could just find some way to get it out of the theatre, where it seems in many ways to be preaching to the converted, and put it front of an audience less attuned to their message, it just might prove to be the kind of theatre that could change the world.
The irony is that it just might get them bashed in the process.
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BASH'D! A GAY RAP OPERA
At Theatre Passe Muraille
Starring
Chris Craddock, Nathan Cuckow
Director
Ron Jenkins
Sun Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5
