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Charles Ludlam Lives! Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, Taylor Mac, and the Queer Legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company by Sean F. Edgecomb

2018; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 70; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tj.2018.0047

1086-332X

Tom Smith,

Cinema and Media Studies

Reviewed by: Charles Ludlam Lives! Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, Taylor Mac, and the Queer Legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company by Sean F. Edgecomb Tom Smith CHARLES LUDLAM LIVES! CHARLES BUSCH, BRADFORD LOURYK, TAYLOR MAC, AND THE QUEER LEGACY OF THE RIDICULOUS THEATRICAL COMPANY. By Sean F. Edgecomb. Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance series. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017; pp. 246. Utilizing both archival research and performance ethnography to present a thorough and thoughtful "queerstory" (xv) of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company and its extension through the work of three queer theatrical artists, author Sean Edgecomb impressively succeeds in positioning Ludlam as an overlooked influence on modern queer theory, and theatre in general. He divides his book, Charles Ludlam Lives! Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, Taylor Mac, and the Queer Legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, into two thematic "acts." Act 1 provides a history and analysis of Ludlam's work, as well as a broader exploration of how "queer theory in a contemporary, post-millennial context may be used to better understand the formation of queer legacies" (xvi). Act 2 explores the "Neo-Ridiculous" artists Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, and Taylor Mac and traces elements of Ludlam's legacy in their tone, practice, and style. In addition to these two acts, Edgecomb purposefully renames his introduction and conclusion "Prologue" and "Epilogue" not only to lend the book a dramatic feel, but more notably to mirror the theatrical tone of the essays that Ludlam penned throughout his career. While the prologue and chapter 1, "Still Ridiculous: Queering Legacy," encompass the twenty-year period in which Ludlam developed and refined the Ridiculous genre, only two of his plays—Bluebeard and Camille—receive any significant attention. One wishes that there was a detailed accounting of a wider selection of the twenty-seven other plays and two puppet shows that Ludlam wrote and produced. The scant forty pages that compose these two sections seem the most incomplete part of Edgecomb's book, especially given that the rest of it relies upon a thorough understanding of both the Ridiculous approach and Ludlam's contributions to it. Edgecomb explores Ludlam's influences, including his peers Jack Smith and Ron Rice and the broader environment/culture of mid-twentieth-century underground film and anti-authoritarian art. There is a brief though important examination of the collaborations and eventual falling out between Ludlam and the cofounders of Playhouse of the Ridiculous, John Vaccaro and Ronald Tavel. Edgecomb's most insightful discussion focuses on the inherent connection of queerness and Ridiculous and Ludlam's inspiring progressive changes within the gay community through the use of Camp. The detailed definition of Camp, which Edgecomb capitalizes to indicate Ludlam's interpretation of it, resonates with the queer community as "an outsider's view of things other people take totally for granted. Because of the inversion, everything that everyone else has taken for granted isn't true for you. Suddenly things become funny because you're seeing it through a mirror, a reverse image" (16). According to Ludlam, Camp allows heteronormative constructs to no longer seem threatening, but in fact, ridiculous; it also provides a means to connect one generation of outsiders with the next. By positioning Camp in Ludlam's plays Bluebeard and Camille alongside Proustian encoded language and gay subtext, the author presents a compelling argument that Ludlam's work and influence resurrected formerly absent queer histories, while inspiring a generation of Neo-Ridiculous artists. Of the three performing artists that Edgecomb highlights in the second act of his book, Busch is the one about whom the most has been previously written. Having had a Tony-nominated play produced on Broadway, he achieved the mainstream commercial success that Ludlam never did. Busch knew Ludlam personally and worked with him before the latter's temper and jealousy prompted Busch to create his own company. Edgecomb analyzes some similarities between the two performers, but spends more time explaining their differences, particularly Busch's work feeling more Broadway than East Village and his focus on entertainment rather than social messages. This chapter concentrates a bit too [End Page 267] much on three examples of Busch's work: Vampire...