{"id":418324,"date":"2026-07-30T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:22:09","slug":"drama-masks-olivia-bratko-is-here-to-let-you-know-that-youre-not-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418324\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama Masks: Olivia Bratko is here to let you know that you’re not crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I showed up one night too early for the show below. Not quite sure how the wires got crossed on my end, but I nevertheless wound up taking a stroll through The Castro, something I don\u2019t get to do as often as I used to.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the neighborhood\u2019s namesake movie palace\u2014which I haven\u2019t visited since 2019\u2014was having an anniversary screening of the San Francisco classic Mrs. Doubtfire. I haven\u2019t seen that movie in at least 30 years. I remember thinking it was OK, and having a physically shocked reaction when I saw our very own Buster<\/a> pop up on the screen. (Why the hell did they call him \u201cKovacs\u201d?) I get that other kids loved it and why it\u2019s considered a local treasure. I mean, it\u2019s not So I Married an Axe Murderer, but it\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

Yet, activist instincts being what they are, my knee-jerk reaction to seeing the title on the marquee was to roll my eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It might be because the last time I went to the Castro Theatre was for a different anniversary screening: the 30th anniversary of Spike Lee\u2019s Do the Right Thing. I sat directly beneath the chandelier with a group of friends, most of whom had never seen it, and did my best not to recite every incendiary line from start-to-finish. (Although, when \u201cFight the Power\u201d played during the opening credits, I did scream \u201cMotherfuck him and John Wayne!\u201d at the top of my lungs, which scared the shit out of my friends and several other bystanders. I have no regrets: That\u2019s a call-and-response song, as far as I\u2019m concerned.)<\/p>\n

I honestly doubt that sort of film would find a place in The Castro\u2019s current programming. As I look over their current calendar<\/a>, I see reminders of their classic schedule with screenings of films like Hedwig and Spirited Away alongside live performances from Michelle Branch and She & Him. Sure, they plan to have Satanist country duo Twin Temple in September, but I still don\u2019t see the appeal of those gaudy new folding chairs<\/a>. Everything about it seems so damn corporate now.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, I did remember that time marches on. It may not be the same place where one could watch John Carpenter\u2019s Escape from New York before grabbing a slice at Escape from New York Pizza, but there\u2019s still something to be gleaned from the thought of a packed crowd inside one of SF\u2019s signature venues to take in a time capsule of SF entertainment all for the sake of finding joy, even for a short time.<\/p>\n

Yes, this is another one of those \u201cjoy-as-an-act-of-rebellion\u201d rants. I\u2019m not going to pretend that Mrs. Doubtfire was as groundbreaking as Hedwig, or that its whitewashed portrayal of my hometown is something in which I take pride. No, I know that people like it because it had one of the most energetic comedians of his generation dressing in drag to play rival to Pierce Brosnan\u2019s pretty Irish face. It doesn\u2019t (always) have to work as a bold statement when it can adequately counter the phony narrative of San Francisco as Hell on Earth.<\/p>\n

The world being what it is, I didn\u2019t begrudge the folks that had a good time at that screening anymore than I\u2019d begrudge New Conservatory for once again programming Hedwig into their upcoming season. There are people who truly want us sad, confused, and compliant these days. If those folks are angry at the thought of you smiling, then you\u2019re probably smiling for all the right reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"Olivia Bratko. Photo by Scott Sidorsky<\/p>\n

\u201cTrey\u201d or, Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle III at Theatre Rhino<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my own fault I showed up on the final preview instead of opening night. Fortunately, they were able to fit me in, which is great, because if you\u2019re looking for the opposite of corporate-sponsored gay revelry, Olivia Bratko has quite the show for you.<\/p>\n

Multi-talent Bratko\u2019s \u201cTrey\u201d or, Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle III<\/a> through (August 8 at Theatre Rhino, SF) is the third of her solo shows. I haven\u2019t seen the other two, but if she ever decides to marathon them in rep (the show is only one hour long), I\u2019d be interested. Clad in nothing more than a black unitard as she sits on a lonesome stool in the corner of the Rhino\u2019s tiny stage, she takes the persona of the eponymous Kyle\u2077, third of their name\u2014hence the nickname \u201cTrey\u201d\u2014and unabashed in disposition. Trey has come before us today to share such seemingly random pearls of wisdom like \u201cIf you hold in a burp, it will become a fart, but if hold in a laugh, it will shoot out your dick.\u201d The more you know.<\/p>\n

So begins a wild, hourlong mix of torch song crooning, recycled audio clips, ponderings on Catholic guilt and gender identity, and a lot of raunchy improv. None of that should work together as well as it does, but seeing is believing. At one point, our dear Trey has two random volunteers come from the audience to hold each of her hands for what seems like an eternity, before proffering such thought experiments as \u201cWhen I close my laptop, where do my e-mails go?\u201d Then, there was a rant about pants. All of that is before a rather deep soliloquy insisting that Ecclesiastes is \u201cthe most goth book of the bible, behind Job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at just 60 or so minutes, getting lost in Bratko\u2019s mind is as hilarious as it is sad. It\u2019s a contradiction that welcomes and interacts with the audience, yet the character is openly resentful of their presence. It\u2019s a show where the only character improvs an entire complicated backstory for someone in the crowd before leaving the audience stunned with a story of the road to Hell paved with good intentions. It\u2019s the performance of a trained singer who lip-syncs because she wants the audience to sing along. It is many things, but \u201cdull\u201d is never one of them.<\/p>\n

It had been a while since I attended Rhino\u2019s cramped little black box, but I remembered not to expect much in terms of HVAC. CO\u00b2 levels on my Aranet4 wound up topping 2,750ppm by the final bow. It was a near-full house and I was the only one masked.<\/p>\n

Other than that, an hour with Trey\u2014both the show and the character\u2014is well worth your time. This is one of those empathetic shows that lets you know you\u2019re not crazy, yet hilarious in a why to help you laugh to keep from crying. And it\u2019s way too easy to cry theses days.<\/p>\n

\u2018TREY\u2019, or KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE III runs through August 8 at Theatre Rhino, SF. Tickets and further info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I showed up one night too early for the show below. Not quite sure how the wires got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-418324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}