Loving the Stranger, or how to recognize an invert
By Alistair Newton
Directed by Alistair Newton
Presented by Ecce Homo Theatre
Production Designer: Matt Jackson
Musical Director: Dan Rutzen
Choreographer: Graham McKelvie
Video: Adam Levett
Featuring Andrew Bathory, Seth Drabinsky, Matt Eger, Graham McKelvie, Kimberly Persona, Hume Baugh
Runs until August 15 @ Factory Theatre Mainspace
By Kerry Freek
A cabaret-style history lesson, Loving the Stranger is an entertaining and poignant show that explores homosexuality and sexuality, illustrating the continuing many-sided struggle to oppress, eliminate, understand and liberate.
Using only text from interviews, historical archives and legislation, director and playwright Alistair Newton aligns provocative dialogue with comedic satire. In one of the first scenes, actor Matt Eger performs a striptease while reciting text from Paragraph 175, Germany’s anti-sodomy law (May 1871 to March 1994). Later, actors reveal the ridiculousness of a nasty Support Proposition 8 commercial using the precise wording of its script. In addition to a cast of several nameless characters — lovers, soldiers, dudes — the audience meets important historical figures such as Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Adolf Hitler, Michel Foucault and Adolf Brand, many of whom entertain the audience with a song-and-dance number.
Well researched and superbly edited, Loving the Stranger also boasts a capable, talented ensemble. Particularly notable: the diverse and expressive Kimberly Persona, who goes from Cyndi Lauper-esque diva to Hitler Youth marionette in the blink of an eye. Matt Eger is unflappable, switching effortlessly from a Singin’ in the Rain crooner to a contemporary “masc” gay man from Kitchener to a statuesque nude model.
Monologue taken from Newton’s interviews with Peter Flinsch ties the show together. Portrayed by Hume Baugh, the German immigrant to Canada sits comfortably on the corner of the stage and recounts his life as an observer of progress, beginning with his early days as a young homosexual man obliged to become a member of the Hitler Youth Movement. He explains his time in prison, jailed for being a homosexual in 1942. After coming to Canada in 1953, he began to see changes and societal acceptance. Ending happily in Montreal’s gay village, Flinsch’s narration is a powerful anchor.
By a stroke of what Flinsch might call luck, Newton managed to conduct interviews with the ninety-year-old Montrealer before his death in March of this year. By including Flinsch as a character in the show, Newton pays wonderful tribute and provides a sign of hope for further progress. The chaotic song-and-dance activity that flurries around Flinsch, however, proves that there’s still plenty to be learned, understood and said about sexuality and acceptance.
