As an unfortunate rite of passage, many gay youths experience trauma of one variety or another. Whether its catcalls on the schoolyard or familial prejudice, there is always personal history that one must come to bittersweet grips with as an adult.
Even the most significantly wounded realize, though, that some of their LGBTQ+ family members have had it much worse than others. Gangsta Baby, the powerful new work receiving its US premiere at Open Space Arts in Chicago, depicts one of those extreme scenarios with a hedonistic, punk rock nihilism met by a truly poetic, occasionally hopeful heart.
Here the story of Junior (Cameron Raasdal-Munro) unfolds via a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards that depict a life of abuse and sexual promiscuity. As the son of Senior (Josh Odor), a violent drug dealer and criminal thug, Junior learns to get by via street smarts and by bending to the will of his sometimes psychotically angry parent. While the protection of his transgender brother Pete (Jensen Knudsen) provides him with loving solace, and his job as a sex worker eventually introduces a libertine-style independence, the past, as always, is never far behind. When a nervous trick (Bryan Nicholas Carter) turns out to have connections to Junior’s enforcer father, violence and corruption once again rear their ugly heads.
Appropriately, director Rikki Beadle-Blair directs with a taut, cinematic glow. It is very hard to make a visceral crime drama sing on stage, but Beadle-Blair succeeds in making all the intense action pieces within the play radiate with a real-life poignancy. Utilizing his own past, playwright Raasdal-Munro also creates with a true-to-life intimacy. His knowledge of society’s underbelly rings forth here with compassion and understanding. He also intuitively, works moments of true humor and athletic sensuality into the mix, giving audiences a moment to breath and enjoy themselves despite the destruction that often unfolds with spiraling acuteness in Open Space’s incredibly intimate, 30 seat space.
Transforming themselves beneath David Flores’ spot-on graffiti art and within Phoebe Huggett’s appropriately grimy set, the cast excels as well. Raasdal- Munro navigates the sometimes difficult job of performing his own material with studied ease, making his Junior a loveable and compelling presence throughout the show’s 90-minute runtime.
As Senior, Odor is viscerally scary. Yet, as a veteran of multiple Chicago stages, he is smart enough to allow moments of compassion and hurt to reflect within his characterization. This is especially true as Senior struggles with his own, deeply buried homosexual desires.
Knudsen, meanwhile, shines with determined light as Pete, giving the show its true warmth and heart. Carter, in contrast, provides audiences with much needed comic relief, particularly during some of the project’s tensest moments.
Ultimately, all involved, from props to sound, should be proud of their work here. In a world where toxic masculinity has taken hold with dangerous results, Gangsta Baby helps illustrate how those beliefs can fester and grow.
Most importantly, Raasdal-Munro shows that, through creativity and courage, there is always a way beyond that despair if one truly desires to find it.
Gangsta Baby runs through October 19th at Open Space Arts, 1411 W. Wilson. More information is available at www.openspacearts.org.