Just in time for the fall theater season, an LGBTQ+ themed play titled Gangsta Baby is leaving London for the land of Lincoln.
Open Space Arts hosts the Chicago debut of the production starting in September. The dramatic story is about a queer sex worker named Junior who has a volatile relationship with his homophobic father and a special bond with his trans brother. The tale is set on the south coast of England and mixes in real-life happenings in Hastings from the author Cameron Raasdal-Monro. He is also the lead performer, once again playing Junior after an earlier three-week run last year at The Hope Theatre in Europe.
The director of the piece, Rikki Beadle-Blair, is not only a Member of the Order of the British Empire but also brings multimedia experience from the entertainment world. His resume includes 40 plays over the last 20 years, a variety of film collaborations and writing the popular television series Noah’s Arc. This year, he has hosted Pride celebrations and continued to run his own company, Team Angelica.
The duo met up for coffee while in the middle of rehearsals for an interview about their project together.
Windy City Times: Begin by stating your pronouns and identity.
Cameron Raasdal-Munro: My pronouns are he/him and I am bisexual.
Rikki Beadle-Blair: My pronouns are he/him and I am gay. I might be sapiosexual because I am attracted to someone’s brain. The way someone communicates is everything to me and if they make me laugh, then I am helpless.
WCT: What are your backgrounds?
CRM: I am from Hastings, a working-class seaside town. I went to drama school for a couple of years and left. I began working on writing and met Rikki. We did a mentorship for a year and then I hounded him with scripts for notes. I eventually wrote this, and I performed it in London before taking it to Chicago.
RBB: I grew up in Bermondsey, which is in south London. My mother is a lesbian who had me when she was very young. I was reading when I could barely speak, so by the time I turned three-years-old, I knew I was going to be a writer. There’s a video of me directing when I was 11 years old on YouTube because they made a documentary about the hippy school I attended. Amongst many projects over the years, I have mentored artists like Cameron.
WCT: Where did you two first meet?
RBB: I met him at a workshop, and he mentioned this play, so we did a reading of it over Zoom. I mentored him with 75 other students for a year after that.
CRM: Gangsta Baby had been in my head for a long time and Rikki encouraged me to write it.
WCT: The show is described as semi-biographical. Where is the line between reality and fiction?
CRM: I am a queer man and the place where the play is set, in Hastings, was not the easiest place to grow up in during my youth. I loved my hometown, though and wouldn’t change a thing about my life. I didn’t see stories about it, and I think we are the first modern play about it to my knowledge, so I wanted to tell my story.
I had a trans stepbrother who passed away and that was a poignant point in my life. My father was in and out of prison throughout my childhood.
I struggled with addiction and I was a sex worker for a part of my life.
RBB: When we were first working on Gangsta Baby, you were still a sex worker, so this was recent.
CRM: Yes, about three or four years ago. There is a lot of truth in the show, but it is still a piece of art, so some things have been changed.
When I write for an audience, I write specifically for one working-class queer kid who has not seen their story yet on the stage. If I can connect with him, then I hope it eventually connects to everybody.
WCT: Has anyone from your real life recognized themselves after watching Gangsta Baby?
CRM: Oh yeah, my mother has seen it. She said it barely scratches the surface of what happened.
WCT: She could write a sequel. Are parts of the show traumatizing for you?
RRB: He’s never asked for a break and he’s onstage the entire time. His character goes through a lot of abuse from his father, and we try to make it digestible, but it has to be hard to go through as an actor.
CRM: It is very cathartic. I am incredibly grateful for my experiences because they have made me the person I am today.
WCT: What parts of Gangsta Baby do you think will resonate with the audience?
CRM: It’s about relationships, particularly between a father and their queer son. It is a very tender, brutal and honest play.
RRB: It’s a classic story of a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. The story is about trying to fit into the world and the family thinks they are helping when they are hurting.
CRM: The characters are trying to do the right thing in all of the wrong ways. There’s some toxic masculinity involved in the dialogue that will also connect to people. Junior is a person being trained in masculinity and can’t fit in.
WCT: The father is called Senior and his son is called Junior, but the brother has an actual name. Was that to keep them as archetypes?
CRM: My father was actually a junior and he hated it. The story is about what we inherit and take from our fathers, so I wanted that imagery. I know it is a bit on the nose.
RRB: It is also about the son owning the junior version of his father. The moment someone says they aren’t like their parents is when they are just like them.
CRM: Everything is a love story, no matter how tragic it is. To love someone, you have to forgive them, especially with a parent. You can hide, but they will always be a part of you.
WCT: How did Gangsta Baby play out for audiences in London and what do you expect from a similar intimate theater in Chicago?
RRB: It played in a 75-seat theater in London where the audience sat amongst the actors in a way. Over there, we couldn’t redecorate the theater, but in this case, the theater company is so dedicated to an artist’s vision that we can make the space completely immersive.
People will come and be in Junior’s world like in a dream. We are exploring everything from the ground to the ceiling. We hope the audience will have a safe journey to look at a dangerous life. They will be looked after by Junior as the host.
WCT: Is there any concern about an audience member talking back too much when addressed directly by a cast member?
RRB: We have talked about that. Sometimes a latecomer will arrive and in this particular theater, they will have to walk in front of everyone. This fills him with glee.
CRM: Things will happen where lines will be forgotten, or a person walks across the stage. I just want to have loads of fun.
RRB: Chicago is the place to make exciting theater and whatever energy the audience brings, we are there for it. We can’t put on a play about being yourself without the audience being themselves.
WCT: Where else is Gangsta Baby going?
RRB: Right now, Chicago is the mountain we want to climb. It would be nice to go back to London with a next-level script that we are developing here.
CRM: As a writer, I would like to see a movie version one day.
WCT: What forthcoming projects do you have on the horizon?
CRM: I am writing a new play about addiction.
RRB: As soon as I finish here, I begin working on a play called Gully Queens, which is about queer kids living in the storm drains of Jamaica.
Click on openspacearts.org for Gangsta Baby tickets from Sept. 19 to Oct. 5 at Open Space Arts, 1411 W. Wilson Ave.