Playwrights: Ricardo Gamboa and Sean Parris. At: Free Street Theater at Pulaski Park Field House, 1419 W. Blackhawk St. Tickets: Freestreet.org; Pay-what-you-can admission. Runs through: Aug. 1
Artistic and romantic collaborators Ricardo Gamboa and Sean James William Parris have done their homework on their new confessional two-man performance art piece Space Age (For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Universe Is Not Enough).
Director Reshmi Hazra Rustebakke has Gamboa and Parris readily incorporate creative staging bits into their Free Street Theater show that so shocked early 1990s right-wing Republicans when they were pioneered by the likes of the “NEA Four” (a group of performance artists who were denied individual performance grants by the National Endowment for the Arts due to “controversial” material in their work, which included LGBTQ content).
For instance, both Gamboa and Parris take a page from Tim Miller by performing the entirety of Space Age in their underwear (although Miller went further with full-frontal moments). And aping Karen Finley, notorious for smearing chocolate all over her bare torso, Gamboa gets a jar of salsa poured down his front while recounting a spicy bedroom encounter.
It’s nice that Gamboa and Parris pay homage to their performance art predecessors, but one wishes that Space Age was better-focused and curated. Ostensibly a personal mediation on how Gamboa and Parris’ lives as 30-something gay men were shaped by pop culture’s lack of Latino and Black role models, Space Age often feels overburdened with too much material. It’s as if the show’s stars, frightened at never getting to do another show, were determined to cram in as much content as possible.
Like two ricocheting pinballs, Gamboa and Parris recount unsettling childhood stories filled with homophobia and abuse before enacting whole scenes from the Nightmare on Elm Street or Batman film franchises. Recent personal tragedies get bumped up against coming out dilemmas involving alcohol and anonymous Craigslist hookups.
These are all fascinating topics, but many are so glibly treated that you wish Gamboa and Parris offered more elaboration. Also, many of the film reenactments can come off as self-indulgent—especially when these campy homages go on longer than the explanations of why Gamboa and Parris were so influenced by these fictional heroes.
Despite the show’s faults (and its curious title since fantasy films are name-checked more than sci-fi ones), Gamboa and Parris prove to be very dynamic and engaging performers who are clearly bursting with talent—and sweat thanks to the inadequate air conditioning (coolers of water and soda are on hand for sweltering audiences).
Gamboa and Parris clearly have a lot to say and share as gay performance artists, and it’s great that they’re creating material for and about themselves. Space Age may be an imperfect start, but the duo have the makings of a winning collaboration if they can make future shows more exactingly shaped and honed.