Another unusual location will be a makeshift airport within a large commercial property at 444 N. Third Street. The Bearded Ladies Cabaret will build a so-called “Hairport,” filled with luggage that contain theater props from its 16 years of original performances.
Company founder Rose Jarboe said the interactive performance will ask audience members to dig through the Bearded Ladies’ material history to consider the longevity of queer theater.
“This company has been a secret frog pond, where a bunch of queerdos and weirdos and misfits have actually been using art to become who they are,” Jarboe said, “and to make a space for other people to become who they are.”
The festival will begin with a production featuring a blast from the past.
In 1993, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, faced off against playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer during a live C-SPAN television broadcast debating the U.S. government’s approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The verbatim transcript of that hourlong televised debate is the script for “Fauci/Kramer,” Daniel Fish’s surreal play about health care, politics and the nature of disagreements. While Fauci and Kramer were committed to finding a way to manage the AIDS crisis, they vehemently disagreed on how to do it.
A scene from a previous production of ”Fauci/Kramer” by Daniel Fish, a verbatim re-imagining of a 1993 televised debate about the AIDS crisis between Anthony Fauci and Larry Kramer. (Photo provided by FringeArts)
“Many callers, and we hear this all the time, would say, ‘Gee, if only the government did this we would get the answer,’” Fauci said during the 1993 TV call-in show. “It isn’t as simple and straightforward as that. If it were, don’t you think it would have been done?”
“I do,” Kramer interrupted. “I’m going to break in right here and say: Tony, all of that is bureaucratic bull– and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Nell-Jensen said the historic debate is notable because, despite vulgarities and deeply entrenched opposition, Fauci and Kramer continued to engage with each other’s ideas on and off camera.
“There’s something quite radical about people disagreeing and staying in conversation with each other,” she said. “I think we are quick to write people off who we don’t agree with these days. This piece, even though at times it’s hard to watch because they’re being cruel to each other in moments, it’s a beautiful demonstration of them always coming back together because they both care so deeply about the topic.”
The 30th Philadelphia Fringe Festival runs Sept. 8-27.