I'm just talkin' 'bout Pulp:
January 29 - March 20, 2004
Wednesday-Friday at 8:30pm
Saturdays at 5:30pm and 9pm
Victory Gardens Theatre, 2257 North Lincoln Avenue
Tough, trash-talking rebel Terry Logan takes up residency at The Well - a Chicago club for women who love women - and then the trouble really begins. This hilarious new comedy by Patricia Kane (Seven Moves) was a smash-hit during AFT's 2003 Festival of New Plays. Featuring a jazzy score, sensational nightclub acts, and a cast of celebrated actresses, Pulp is a delightful homage to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction novels in which drag kings rule and forbidden lust lurks behind every innuendo. From the company that brought you Xena Live! The musical, Pulp promises to heat up the coldest of Chicago nights!
Want to know more? See also Pulp Script at the Free Press (which link will probably break some time next week):
Kane isn't surprised that pulps are hot again. "The covers themselves are fun and have that campy, kitschy style," she said. "And pulps and the covers of pulps themselves are simply fun and sexy. But pulps are also part of our history so it's also fun to appreciate the covers and read the books and be grateful that we're not living in that time anymore."Lesbian pulp fiction started out as masturbation stories for men and were written by men using pseudonymous female names. However, lesbians bought them, too, and soon well-known lesbians such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Patricia Highsmith and Marijane Meaker (best known as children's author M.E. Kerr) were also writing them under assumed names, mostly for Gold Medal Books, an imprint of Fawcett Books. The books written by lesbians tended to portray lesbians as real women instead of predatory monsters, which lesbians of the era must have appreciated. Even the trashier ones at least validated the lesbian experience and they were bought by the score. In fact, lesbian pulp fiction became so popular that different sub-genres developed: There were lesbians in the military, lesbians in institutions, lesbians who seduced straight girls, lesbians saved by straight men and others.
About Face's new play isn't based on any of these books in particular. Instead, it captures the flavor of the genre, culling visuals from the most vivid covers and plotlines from the most sensational books. The language is melodramatic, Kane said, like old movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Director Thebus heightens the drama by using poses reminiscent of the original pulp covers. However, Kane is careful to say that though the play is funny it isn't mocking lesbian pulp fiction.
"It's not a send-up, so I guess it's not true camp. In any case, the genre has its own inherent camp, so you don't need to punch that up anymore. We enjoy the style of the genre but we don't make fun of it," she said.
. . . Marion Zimmer Bradley?
Right, something else I'll probably miss in my suckage. I should work on that. You might could also have a look at Pulp (non) Fiction in Windy City Times, which article features a few pulp novel covers in both the print and web editions. I rather like this one myself. . .
Update: Crossposted to ChicagoLesbiansInvadingTaverns.com, just because.
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