Live Show Review: The Gay Divorce by Cecilia Corrigan

Maybe the real gay divorce was the friends we made along the way <3 A little insight into a new section of this SubStack debuting officially in August!

This past week (July 13th through 18th specifically) me and my roomie went to New York to look for an apartment— which is why there were no posts last week (sorry!). The good news is we got one! We both love it and are super excited to move in. The good but also very stressful news is that we are moving in two weeks!! Yes you read that right— two weeks from the date of publishing I will officially be a NYC resident.

Amazingly exciting? YES! Giving me stress pimples? Also yes!

But while we were there, I got to take said roomie to her first ever new-work-downtown-theater show! She is an avid theater lover, so we excitedly hopped on the bus from our hotel down to The Brick on July 17th to go see Cecilia Corrigan’s The Gay Divorce.

Here is the official summary from The Brick’s website:

Get in, loser, we’re getting divorced! From the twisted mind of sad award-winning clown Cecilia Corrigan comes a nightmare romcom set in a haunted house of gay wedding planning, bitcrunched horror tropes, and Barbie-doll playhouse rituals. A comedic confessional from a Real Housewife of failed queer life-maxxing.

As a queer divorcee, let’s just say this was right up my alley. We arrived about twenty minutes early so we could check out the gallery space beforehand, which was filled with art pertaining to the show and its themes. Free scallion pancakes were also provided, which I did highly enjoy (listen, if it’s basically bread, I’m eating it and loving it) along with the many fascinating paintings, sculptures, and other works. Acid Cat (the costume designer) had some work on display, which the roomie and I did have fun debating if we could pull off or not.

The show started about twenty minutes late, which I was not a fan of, but is not exactly unexpected in the setting. The space had been transformed with tinsel curtains and sheets to create makeshift backstage areas, and nothing more than a chair and table were set. As the lights dimmed, club music blared out from the sound system as Cecilia Corrigan herself emerged from behind us in full witch garb, warty nose and all! She introduced herself as “Befana”, which my Italian-American ass instantly recognized as a reference to “La Befana” i.e. the Italian Christmas Witch. However, this iteration of Befana has something else to give the audience instead of wrapped presents— a talk show focused on getting us married to a rich person!

Immediately it is clear that something Corrigan would be discussing in this piece was the effects of late state capitalism and “all out social collapse” on love and feminine identity. Befana wants to help the audience find a rich person because, in her words, that’s the only kind of safety net we can possibly create for ourselves right now. And she’s not wrong! This is where the nightly “special guest” came out for a hilarious back and forth with Cecilia, which on July 17th was Beanz and the Lost Pirates. This created a sort of improv-show-meets-drag-show-meets-talk-show vibe that made us laugh so hard I snorted multiple times.

The other guest actor, Simone McAlonen, played a version of Cecilia herself in the audience, telling Befana in a self aware and comedic monologue about how this “marry rich” take was “anti-feminist”. In the end she douses Befana with water, causing her to melt in the most over the top drama queen way I have ever seen, complete with twerking on the floor.

At this point, the performance’s structure becomes clear: vignette style. Cecilia plays multiple different characters whose stories interweave to explore the themes of love, power, identity, and more under our current political and social environment. The “main” character of these, I would personally say, was an influencer character on a journey to marry a rich woman. This influencer was, despite being clearly out-of-touch with the realities of the average American, very likable and funny. Not only did Corrigan portray her with a clarity of spirit that struck me to the core, she held herself so naturally that I couldn’t always tell whether what she was saying was improvised or scripted.

What also really struck me about Corrigan’s performance (and writing!) was how naturally she transitioned from vignette to vignette, character to character. At one point she comes out literally as Jesus on the cross. No, I am not joking— there was a full PVC pipe cross and sparkly cross shaped nipple covers involved. In another moment she transitions from influencer to literal worm, which was so unexpectedly funny I could hear the other audience members gasping for breath between laughs. None of these transitions felt awkward or like they stopped the show in any way; in fact, they added to it. These “side” characters of Jesus, the worm, and Befana added symbolistic meaning to the story of the influencer’s marry-rich journey, emphasizing the different extreme emotions that are often felt by most of us under the current regime. The worm was anger and an indulgence in hatred of the self and others; Jesus a people pleasing and also genuine care for our communities; and Befana a statement on those just trying to survive in any way they can.

There were two moments in this show, however, that really stuck with me. The first was a monologue from the influencer character about the movie Alien: Resurrection. Having only seen the first one, I was captivated by Corrigan’s description of Sigourney Weaver’s character, a clone of her earlier character, Ripley. This influencer talks about the character’s power and strength and how it is in opposition to the confusion and pain she must feel, which illuminates the themes of power and agency Corrigan seems to be exploring. At this point in the influencer’s story she is engaged to a lesbian billionaire who does not seem to treat her very well, which only serves to drive the point of the monologue home.

The other moment came at the very end of the show in which we see this influencer character in a post-nuclear-apocalypse setting in which she has turned her now-dead fiancee’s mansion into a strange survival base. The influencer discusses how, after they emerged from the fallout shelter, her and her friends got along fairly well for a bit— until the lack of dopamine hits from technology such as phones started to really get to them. The way she describes it, some of the women started experiencing psychosis that seemed eerily similar to Desperate Housewives episodes. So…they created a theater space and started performing Housewives skits for each other each night, and the problem was solved.

What really struck me about this was the commentary on the human need not necessarily for entertainment, but for community through storytelling. In this section we can see the connection between early humans’ oral histories, rituals, and early plays and the development of modern day entertainment, seeing how something that originally was created based around a community has been warped.

The performance ends pretty much immediately after this in a very circular fashion that I won’t spoil. However, it did leave me feeling a little wanting. Something about the work as it currently stands feels a tad unfinished. This doesn’t mean everything needs to be resolved— of course not. But I didn’t feel as though there was a real “button” to the end of the show, something that felt…finished. The audience even seemed a little confused, not immediately getting up after the short curtain call, as if they expected something more. I assume Corrigan is still working on the show/script, and that this will probably be remedied in future showings.

When the show goes up at Philly Fringe in September, I am sure it will be different (and even more awesome) in ways I cannot even imagine!

So, overall, I would definitely go see this show in Philadelphia this fall if you can. I had a really great time— I laughed a lot, but it also made me think. It made me feel seen.

And from my non-theatre-professional roommate’s perspective, just in case you needed more reason to see this: “I would see it over and over again.”

That’s all for this first real edition of Live Theatre Reviews! Once I’m firmly in the city next month these are going to become a regular thing. I’m thinking, due to budget reasons, I can probably do them once a month. So, if you know of any shows going up this fall that you want me to review, let me know in the comments (or by DMing me, or emailing me— you know the drill)!

Until next time— happy theatre-making!

~Brynn