WOLFCRUSH: a queer werewolf play (On the Rocks): 2018 Fringe review


Over the last three years, On the Rocks has produced a series of late-night, byob, kick-ass theater shows. Well, WOLFCRUSH is late-night and BYOB, but it misses the no-holds-barred humor, shock value, and pop culture-infused insight into youth culture of playwright Haygen-Brice Walker’s previous Fringe entries. Instead, it uses the horror genre which On the Rocks previously mined so successfully to make a juvenile allegorical parallel between the transformation into a werewolf and high school coming out as homosexual. The “werewolves” feed on local youth, transforming into stereotypical sadomasochistic leather-strapped garb and indulging in simulated sex acts which would only be transgressive to someone who thought homosexual sex was transgressive. Lesbianism gets a male-gaze homoerotic treatment.

The acting is still stellar: Jenna Kuerzi provides welcome humor as a principal, a mayor, and a cop (all male) and Campbell O’Hare flourishes as a high schooler discovering her sexuality. Elaina Di Monaco directs.

[Vox Populi, 319 N. 11th Street] September 13-22, 2018fringearts.com/event/wolfcrush-a-queer-werewolf-play/

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