I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore...

A thick Dorthy shows her 'bits' to the Wizard of Oz after he asks her to do something for him... He meant that she was to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, but she obviously thought he meant something else...

This is the kind of bizarre twist you find in the imaginative retelling of the Wizard of Oz that Col and I went to see Friday night. The brief explanation of this show found on most of the promotional material read as follows:

"Sumptuous costumes, surreal sets, big shiny production numbers and a gender-bending cast that will colour your dreams in shades of ruby red and emerald green. Part musical theatre, part drag show, part multimedia installation, this is a full-blown decadent musical diversion that will take you down the yellow brick road to an Oz you only knew existed in the darkest (and campest) recesses of your twisted little mind."

This show was featured as part of the latest Dublin Fringe Festival and was put together and performed by Dublin's own DoppleGang (Blogger wouldn't accept the 'diacritic umlaut' that the 'a' is supposed to be... It therefore is missing the two dots over it), a fantastic group of performers including drag kings and queens but also many other talented and varied performers doing their own cabarett shows.

Honestly, this article on Queer ID (featuring 'Oz: A Fairytale Plot' as it's September 'Pick of the Month') explains DoppleGang's history and this new show much better then I ever could. And it makes a good quick read. So give it a skim if curious about what I am raving on about.

Basically, all I can say is that it was a hoot. It was such a massive undertaking for the group ('Original songs and dance numbers and multimedia effects, oh my!'), but they really stepped up to the mark. Their run at the Fringe Fest ended tonight, but I hope they were satisfied with the response they got. So much work went into it, but it was fantastic.