Last Sunday night I found myself in a world I do not often come by as I sat stage-side at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's annual Free Jane cabaret. I wish I could say my life is always full of aging drag queens describing their nostalgic bathhouse adventures, but unfortunately this glimpse into their reality is still a treat for me.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is located at 12 Alexander St and is Toronto's oldest and largest destination for queer theatre. The cabaret was held in the, you guessed it, cabaret theatre room which possesses many of the ever crucial qualities any good cabaret facility should contain including: dim lighting, a bitchy cash bar bartender, groups of giggling boys huddled around wobbly tables, and smoke breaks on the wheelchair ramp outside. I had been to see numerous Buddies shows in the past, but nothing this raw, this authentic, and I think that had partly to do with the play reading at the beginning of the night and more to do with Jane, our evening's host.

Jane is the alter ego of Buddies' founder and Toronto's alternative theatre trailblazer Sky Gilbert. Although the majority of the night was not about Jane, as she is such an interesting Toronto character, she inevitably stole the majority of the spotlight for the evening. Jane without a doubt has the nicest legs I have ever laid eyes on which were fully displayed by a loose, leopard print, mesh nightie sitting slightly higher than crotch level. The baggage in front had a matching leopard print thong strapping it all in. The ensemble was of course topped off by Jane's staple blond locks and enormous ballooned chest. Any man's dream.

To give you a little inside look into Jane I have posted this YouTube video of her speaking at a fundraiser, obviously the different environment calls for a different look, but this is very much Jane's temperament:

The entire night's events were not circled around Toronto's favorite drag persona, however, as the main purpose of the Free Jane evening is to hear a new play by a young playwright read by professional actors. This year's choice was "Why Raid Identity" by Jesse Stong and the play reading was directed by Edward Roy.

"Why Raid Identity" is based on the bathhouse raids, often coined as 'Operation Soap'. Over 300 men were arrested February 5, 1981 in four separate bathhouses around Toronto by Toronto police. Because there were many protests that followed, denouncing the raids, most of the charges were dropped to the arrested men. These protests soon became organized marches and are the beginnings of what we now know as the Gay Pride Parade here in Toronto. Learning this fact was probably one of the most interesting parts of the evening for me, as I had heard about the bathhouse raids, but really knew very little about their goings ons. The play itself, however, was not the vehicle in learning this useful information as the internet later made that possible for me. Here's a useful Wikipedia definition for a little more Operation Soap insight:

Stong's play's focus is not that of the history of Operation Soap, but rather he creates five individual men who are part of the night's events and we, the audience, are privy to the drama of their bathhouse adventures. There is first a closeted police officer, who's struggle between his job and morality is played with quite well as he finds himself in the nighttime establishment. We have two younger characters: one, a Newbie to the bathhouse world, fresh meat from small-town nowhere; and the other a well established bathhouse Trick. The two older characters are firstly, a middle aged married man who has become angry and numb over time; and a fallen Father addicted and pushing every narcotic under the sun.

Stong's two-hander scenes between characters give the play its charm, letting delicious parallels exist between individuals. The comedy of the scenes between Newbie and Trick, and Newbie and the Father are well timed. In a play reading format it isn't always easy to imagine more serious or dramatic scenes, therefore I would really like a chance to see some of those staged, rather than read to determine their full potential. The play as a whole came together nicely and I found myself growing attached to certain characters, wanting to know more about their lives to come.

After the play reading, which lasted a little over an hour and twenty, we had a chance to get up and grab another beer before act two. Jane, promising bathhouse stories of her own, encouraged audience members to help create a cabaret with poems, monologues, whatever. The first brave soul was a young, little, wiry guy performing what he called a dramatic mask. More or less I watched this guy fly out a mono-drama about his Mom and his sexual feelings towards Jesus. I found his confidence in the whole event impressive. An old acting friend of Sky, I mean Jane's got up and read some juicy poetry, but it really was the collective bathhouse stories that brought the night to its climax for me. I heard a story about a man new to the Toronto gay scene where he somehow found himself with a certain nameless famous individual, high on god knows what, pretending he was a broom and attempting to sweep this unsaid famous person out of a corner like a mouse! Another story that sticks out for me is about a young man given "poppers" and not knowing what to do with them begins to drink the mixture. As this could be very harmful the Popper Giver yells out and therefore of course gets it all spit back out into his face. While the Popper Giver is gone to go wash his face the Popper Spitter locks the door to the room he is not the renter of and pretends snore loudly. There were many more great stories, and I wish I could do them justice, but having the men deliver them themselves is more than half the fun.

All in all I had an evening out of my ordinary and happily too.

Thanks again for reading, and if you would like to hear more of my weekly Toronto theatre adventures, hit the 'be TaylorGraham's fan' button at the top. Have a good one folks!