Moss Meunier
This show describes itself as a celebration of queer joy and promises a new theory of love and understanding of transness, and unfortunately fails to deliver.
In a world where trans bodies are seen as curiosities and often judged by a standard of fuckability, Otis tells the story of his sex-obsessed college days and how they lead to his journey of finding self-acceptance and queer joy.
Alone on stage with a mysteriously full bin bag, a velvet green outfit and a piano, Otis tells the story of becoming Otis after being born Imogene. He speak of his struggles with his body growing up, and the difficulty of having an unconventional body post top surgery. Mostly this show is about a quest for sex. Specifically, sex with someone with a penis, and the challenges of body image and transphobia along this quest. We follow Otis through childhood, college and his first job as he becomes increasingly obsessed with sex, an obsession made worse by the fact that it seems unachievable to him. On this journey he learns to love himself and make peace with the way his body is perceived by others.
The themes are ambitious, and the plot is quite thin, and Otis’ performance ultimately is not strong enough to pull this over the finish line. The musical piano breaks were by far the best parts of the show as Otis is a skilled piano player and has a gorgeous singing voice, but the spoken elements felt quite amateurish and stilted. His movements felt stiff and even at the points that really called for an emotional push, I never felt that he went quite far enough. With a story this simple, just a trans guy trying and failing at having sex in various settings (his coffee shop, the bar near the coffee shop… etc) the performance needs to stand out, and it simply did not.
Though the story was simple, I think there was a world where it could have worked, a strong enough performance and perhaps a more structured narrative with a secondary focus on something other than Otis’ ill-fated all-consuming quest for sex. Unfortunately, the result is a rather stiff performance of a story that feels a little pointless and navel-gazey and struggles to relate meaningfully to the larger themes that it sets out to explore.
Stiff, unpolished, and unfulfilling – Otis’ journey towards queer joy and self-acceptance misses the mark. Despite its ambitious themes, the show struggles to connect its protagonist’s personal quest with the broader exploration of trans identity, leaving much to be desired.
Recommended drink: A can of Red bull to bring you back to those horny, anxiety-filled days of college.
You can catch The Christening of Prince Imogen until August 24th at theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall – Stephenson Theatre from 11:00. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Phoebe Bakker
