The Country You Have Never Seen

Just got back from seeing Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, which is being put on by Fuse Theatre Ensemble, a queer theater group here in Portland.

I have no idea what Sondheim et al. originally conceived of the role of the Proprietor to be, but I can confidently say that the role was clearly meant to be played by a drag queen cosplaying America (Quesa D'Mondays). Larger than life in a sequin stars-and-stripes bustier, handing out guns, hugging people to her bosom, and whispering in their ears about Fame and Glory and the American Dream. Choices were made, and they were inspired.

I also had to laugh (never having seen the play before), that here we have yet another instance of Sondheim writing a beautiful love song that, in context, is one of the most fucked-up things you've ever heard.

Anyway, I enjoyed the production thoroughly. A couple of the voices had trouble competing with the orchestra, but not so much that I didn't enjoy the music, and there were supertitles for the lyrics/text, which was nice for catching all of Sondheim's wordplay. It runs for another two weeks, if anyone else is in town and might enjoy a fucked-up gremlin of a show about presidential assassinations (and doesn't mind prop guns too much).