Theatre of The Ridiculous - Play-House of The Ridiculous and The Ridiculous Theatrical Company - Homosexual Themes

Homosexual Themes

In some respects, the productions of the "Play-House" and the "Ridiculous Theatre" had very similar approaches to homosexual themes, in that both employed cross-gender casting, often recruiting drag-queens as actors.

But one view of the Vaccaro's "Play-House" is that they were reluctant to address queer themes directly. The "Ridiculous" productions under Ludlam were more daring in this respect, according to Charles Ludlam: "I felt John was too conservative. He didn't want homosexuality or nudity onstage because he was afraid of being arrested. I wanted to commit an outrage. For me, nothing was too far out."

A contrary assessment is that Ludlam's version of The Ridiculous was too close to conventional comedy, and that Vacarro's work was more challenging, with more emphasis on social commentary. Leee Black Childers was quoted to this effect in Please Kill Me:

In my opinion, John Vaccaro was more important than Charles Ludlam, because Ludlam followed theatrical traditions and used a lot of drag. People felt very comfortable with Charles Ludlam. Everyone's attitude going to see Charles's plays was that they were going to see a really funny, irreverent, slapstick drag show. They never felt embarrassed.

But John Vaccaro was way past that. Way, way past that. John Vaccaro was dangerous. John Vaccaro could be very embarrassing on many levels. He used thalidomide babies and Siamese triplets joined together at the asshole. One actor had this huge papier-mache prop of a big cock coming out of his shorts, down to his knees. He also couldn't control his bowel movements, so shit was dripping down his legs the whole time and everyone loved it. People loved this kind of visually confrontational theater."

Vaccaro and Ludlam did have different attitudes toward homosexuality and the theater. Ludlam talked about how the theatre had always been a refuge for queers, and makes it clear that homosexual themes are important in his work. For Vaccaro, homosexuality was just another element among others that he would use -- he distinguished between "theater people" and homosexual people using the theater for camp/drag performances.

However, Ludlam did have objections to being identified solely as a queer, female impersonator who produced works that were merely "camp". Morris Meyer comments on Ludlam's ambivalence, discussing an interview he conducted with Charles Ludlam: "during a subsequent run of Camille in 1974, he argued emphatically two seemingly contradictory positions for his production. He maintained that his rendering of Camille is not an expression of homosexuality and, at the same time, that it represents a form of coming out."

Still, there's no question that cross-gender performance was central to Ludlam's work. Charles Ludlam discussed his role as the Emerald Empress in Bill Vehr's Whores of Babylon:

Bill wrote this line in Whores of Babylon in which his character said to mine, "How well I understand that struggle in you between the warrior artist and the woman" – this was a wonderful self-revelation – and my line, he wrote, was "The woman? Don't you know there are a thousand women in me and I'm tormented by each one in turn?"