Results tagged “ninaarsenault”

The Silicone Diaries, the new one-woman show written and performed by self-proclaimed "most celebrated transsexual in Canada" Nina Arsenault currently being performed at Buddies' cabaret space, is already a hit. The theatre announced an added performance before the show had even opened, tickets have been selling like hotcakes, and there's already rumours of the Diaries coming back next season, this time in the more spacious "Chamber" section of the venue. That last tidbit is very welcome news for audience members; when we attended the jam-packed opening, "seating" choices were limited to standing room at the back, or cramming ourselves onto the room's grand staircase. We opted for the latter, an experience so uncomfortable we couldn't help but imagine, while Arsenault waxed poetic about the various illegal silicone injections into her ass and hips she had scored in Mexico, the more practical appeal of having a little extra cushion back there.

Sky Gilbert's Ladylike, a new one-act play written specifically for Canada's favourite trans woman, Nina Arsenault, comes to us by way of a well-received run in Hamilton. The play—in which Arsenault's character mostly addresses the audience (and occasionally her boyfriend, played by Wes Berger) on subjects like her family history, her many cosmetic surgery procedures, and ideas about gender construction—probably seemed pretty audacious and daring for Hamilton, but it's interesting to see how a downtown Toronto audience reacts to the subject matter. Although the story is fictional, the character is obviously modelled after Arsenault, giving her the opportunity to pretty much be herself on stage. At various times she challenges the bourgeois sensibilities of the audience, calling them middle class and demanding that they not judge her... which is a kind of judgment itself.

For patriotic theatre-going homosexuals (and really, is there any other kind?), there has been little downtime as of late. Pride, Canada Day, and now the mighty Toronto Fringe Festival have all bled into each other, separated only by a single Monday in which to nurse RuPaul-induced hangovers. Now in its twentieth season, Toronto's biggest theatre festival takes over the city as of 5:30 p.m. this evening. (And it's for straights, too!)