“At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” with The Story Theatre

For their second season, The Story Theatre has opened  At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, written by Terry Guest, their current season’s resident playwright. You will be attending Courtney Berringers’ funeral, but with a twist. Before burying and laying her to rest, we must revisit the truths and the lies of Berringers’ life. Instead of a night of somber respect and lowered eyes with hands clasped in laps, it is a celebration of queerness, blackness, and identity told through traditional scenes as well as direct monologues and drag numbers and stagecraft.  Directed by Mickael Burke, this fascinating, captivating, and heart-wrenching examination of the concepts organic, inorganic, and the combination of both inspires the audience to evaluate the presence of these concepts in their own lives. 

Courtney Berringers was born, grew up, and lived in Alabama until her death in 2019 due to AIDs related complications. She was named Anthony Knighton at birth, and was the uncle of performer and playwright Guest. The evening explores her relationship to drag, blackness, her mother, inevitable death, and Vicki, a fellow drag queen. The donning and removing of costumes and makeup is a fascinating exercise. How much of your past can you wipe away before you start wiping away who you are? And doesn’t your choice of stage alias tell something very personal about who you are, who you think you are, and who you want to be?

Mickael Burke’s direction leads the audience to ask more questions because both the characters and their stories were treated without judgment. Without a haze of judgment, we are left wanting to know more about both of these characters. On this large stage, the picture is never empty or lopsided thanks to Burke’s intricate weaving of the scenes with our two stellar stars: Terry Guest and Paul Michael Thomson. 

Guest not only wrote the script, but also struts the stage as Courtney/Anthony. Guest’s grounded articulateness aids with his tricky task of  isolating Courtney/Anthony in a world of poised perfection and reaching out in earnest to Vicki/Hunter. Courtney/Anthony grew up guarded, to say the least. Her mother knew that she was gay, but still refused to mention anything about it even as she comforted her child in the hospital before Courtney/Anthony passed away. This formed a habit in Courtney/Anthony of leaving things unsaid. Courtney/Anthony refused to define relationships as she grew into adulthood, most notably with Hunter/Vickie, played byThomson. Thomson balances out Guest’s pristine presence with his unassuming naivety and candid charm. Vicki was the fellow drag Queen who Courtney tries to keep at arm’s distance by calling them just a “friend.” Vickie/Hunter was poor and white, and had the privilege of growing up not as guarded as Courtney/Anthony. She did this because of her AIDs diagnosis.  this facade of detachment left Vickie/Hunter with the ability to put an end to the relationship, which he inevitably did. This was a more cutting blow because as opposed to a disease and death ripping this pair apart, it was an emotional wall built by their own hands that separated them. 

Sam Clapp’s stunning sound design transports us through Berringers’ life, with the buzzing cicadas of Alabama in the summer and the crowd’s roars as dance beats subside, but most effective were the moments of deafening ringing, either from the too loud dance music or the symptoms of AIDs. Alyssa Mohn’s stage is ingenious. Of course there is a stage on top of the stage, but instead of putting it dead center, Mohn put it off to the side, leaving room for the performers on top of it to perform for the audience and for each other. In addition to this, the back wall is lined with a slightly dirty mirror that reflects the audience back to itself before the show, and Guest and Thomson during the wake. We became voyeurs to hauntingly intimate moments of these actors regarding, manipulating, evaluating, and appraising themselves in the mirror. Off to the side is a rack of costumes innovatively used to facilitate quick changes and transport props and set pieces to and from the stage. Kyle Cunningham’s lighting design demonstrates how lights can either illuminate or blind one to reality, for better or worse. 

Since this was her wake, Courtney/Anthony is dressed in the most luxurious costumes by Uriel Gomez. Even her athleisure looks pricey as compared to Vicki/Hunter’s nondescript gray sweatpants and homemade crop-top. But by donning a costume that seeks to cover up some features, other characteristics and features are thrust into a new and critical light. As anyone will tell you, sometimes more makeup just makes a bad zit stand out more. Moments of honest confessions to the audience by Guest are made even more heart-aching by seeing the contrast between the elaborate gown cast aside as Berringers bares her soul to the audience in tights and dance shorts.

Drag is the wrapping used to deliver these performances to us, and we were lucky enough to have performers Terry Guest and Paul Michael Thomson unwrap these people before our eyes. A wake is a celebration of a deceased loved one, but a wake is also the ripple in the water behind a boat as it sails forward. This play presents the wake of Courtney when looking back on her life, but also presents the wake of Courtney by leaving us with the waves that her absence washes over those who she tried not to become entangled with. To live is to make an impression on the earth and in others’ hearts. 

At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen runs from September 5th to September 22nd, with 7:30 pm performances on Thursday-Saturday and 3 pm performances on Sundays. Performances take place at Raven Theatre (6157 N Clark St., Chicago, IL) This one-act play runs for about an hour and a half with no intermission. Tickets are General Admission for $15 and can be purchased at thestorytheatre.org.

Highly Recommended

Sophie Vitello