Brad and Janet (a young, bourgeois, heteronormative couple) blow a tire one night, in a downpour, on the way back from a wedding. They spot a castle and venture a knock at the door, in hopes of borrowing the phone. The door is answered by Riff-Raff (the butler) and Magenta (the housekeeper) who usher in the two. They explain to Brad and Janet, it’s a special night for The Master (aka Dr. Frank-N-Furter) as he will be unveiling his “creation”. The revelers (same as Riff-Raff and Magenta) are bizarrely dressed. Despite Janet’s protestations and somewhat disturbing surroundings, Brad is convinced there’s nothing to fear.
Writer, composer and lyricist Richard O’Brien’s glorious, notorious spectacle, The Rocky Horror Show has been around since the 1970’s, and too easy to take for granted. O’Brien found the intersection between Science Fiction film and Anarchy of the Disenfranchised. Consider films like: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds. The lives of tepid, Caucasian heterosexuals collide with extraterrestrial “deviants”, resulting in a mind-blowing, chaotic, Sodom and Gomorrah, with fabulous costumes. Dr. Frank-N-Furter, and his guests, et al, have nothing but barely concealed contempt and withering disdain for the sweet, innocent, ingenues. They’re too clueless to get that they’re being mocked and exploited. That their values are the source of hilarity. O’Brien has struck a satirical tone, but no one is spared. Each character in their turn, is the object of buffoonery and bitchy humor.
Director Blake Hackler has detected what can only be described as O’Brien’s celebration of the subversive. It may be concealed by comedy and implication, but anger and disgust for Wonder Bread oppressors is palpable. It’s a mashup of camp, defiance and the outre’. It’s intriguing that this particular production calls out the Cold Water Bible Belt by name. The brand of Christianity that ignores its own hypocrisy and thrives on persecution, is skewered and held to account. The particular lines are not amplified but neither are they throwaway. As much as I admire and savor these impulses, I’m not sure they’re in sync with the rest of the script.
Hackler and this rogue’s gallery of merrymakers spark a sense of rambunctious jubilation. Rocky Horror would seem to turn on rebellion disguised as facetious shtick. This ramshackle cast of 18 performers dive-in, headfirst (like Esther Williams) to spirit of the piece. Blake Hackler has welcomed us, with open arms, into this giddy, Dionysian blowout. In the tradition of comics who have managed to speak truth to power, by the mere affectation of hi-jinks and mischief, this Rocky Horror tickles us while slipping something in our drinks.
The Dallas Theater Center presents The Rocky Horror Show, playing September 23rd-October 29th, 2023. Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75204.
214-522-8499. ticketing@dallastheatercenter.org