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Date: 8/1/2023
EASTHAMPTON — Continuing celebrations of its 10th year of existence through presenting a summer of queer and women-centric pieces, Real Live Theatre’s next production coming in August will be “P*ssy Sludge” at CitySpace’s Blue Room.
The play follows the eponymous “P*ssy Sludge” who has crude oil coming out of her body, so she moves to a state park to deal with it out there. During her time in the forest, many passersby come to offer their advice and possibly comfort. There is something — alive maybe — inside the sludge, and it is dangerous.
The play is described as a “fever-dream queer love story/adventure about how to deal with trauma; how we heal and how we do not. It’s about bodily autonomy and bodily functions. It’s about the power of the erotic, pleasure and shame. The purpose of the play is not to normalize bodies and what they can do, yet it does.”
Gracie Gardner’s award-winning play will be presented at the Blue Room Aug. 4-6 and 11-13 at 7 p.m. On Aug. 5 and 12, there will also be a 2 p.m. matinee showing of the production. The show is for audiences 18 and older, and tickets are available https://reallivetheatre.net/now-playing.
Producer Ellen Morbyrne and Director Rachel Hall spoke with Reminder Publishing about the upcoming shows of “P*ssy Sludge” and both were eager to be reaching opening night for the show. Hall said she fell in love with the weirdness and how different the play was after reading it and became set on directing it.
Hall called the play a fever dream and those who are interested in seeing it should set their expectations properly.
“I think if people are going to come into the play thinking it’s gonna be normal and like they’re gonna walk out being like, ‘this is what the play was about,’ that’s not going to happen,” Hall said with a laugh.
Hall explained that the conflict “P*ssy Sludge” faces with her own body establishes the world of the play alone. She added audiences will see many unique and interesting ways the sludge is characterized that make things more thought provoking than just its surface level.
Morbyrne said while it is a surreal world the story takes place in, she believes the story model can be paralleled with that of famous children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are.”
“It’s very much like we’re in this real-life woman’s world but then it transforms into almost like — it’s still real but it’s also as Rachel said, this fever dream, sort of distillation synthesizing of what she’s going through emotionally. She’s having the full internal grappling experience and it’s manifesting as all these other characters and as this national park, and the crude oil that’s coming out of her,” Morbyrne said. “So, it actually feels very familiar to me with “Where the Wild Things Are,” which has kind of this linear story but also kind of doesn’t really explain anything or answer anything. It just invites us on this journey to then make what we will of it and in that sense, ‘P*ssy Sludge’ sort of takes that really simple structure and then just explodes it in all directions.”
With the play also having themes and elements relatable to the LGBTQ+ community, Hall and Morbyrne both expressed pleasure with being able to have these elements showcased as a side to a much deeper story.
“One of the clearer things about it is that it doesn’t end in this way that ties it up in a bow. It’s a very realistic depiction of — which is weird to say its realistic because a lot of the play feels unreal — but it’s a really realistic depiction of just a relationship between two women and it doesn’t necessarily go well and the fact that they’re both women, it’s not like that’s their struggle, that they’re women. It just happens to be that which I think is really cool,” Hall said.
Morbyrne continued and added, “It doesn’t feel in any way like a standard bearing, anthem invoking, ‘this is a gay play.’ It doesn’t feel like we are about this issue. It feels very much like P*ssy Sludge is a character going through whatever it is she is going through.”
Morbyrne added P*ssy Sludge’s relationship with her love interest in the show is about their relationship, and not about the fact that they’re both women, something she said was significant for the story.
“The love story is just one piece of this much more complex thing that’s going on and for me, the real central piece of the story is the journey of people through their bodies and the ways that we shame ourselves and each other, and the way we are turned on by ourselves and each other,” Morbyrne said.
Founded in 2013 by theater artists from across the Connecticut River Valley, Real Live Theatre has begun to reemerge following the coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns to celebrate its 10th anniversary as a group. In celebrating the milestone, the company has dedicated two projects written by women and non-binary folks that center on lesbian stories, dealing with the ways our bodies do and don’t heal, and how we as families, lovers and friends navigate everyday issues of life.
This 10th anniversary summer season for the group was made possible in part by support from the Mass Cultural Council, which awarded Real Live Theatre a Cultural Sector Recovery Grant for organizations, as well as a Festivals and Projects Grant for the reading event that was part of the summer season performances.
Morbyrne said when looking for locations for different shows for Real Live Theatre out of the coronavirus pandemic, the partnership between the group and Easthampton became an easy one that hopes to continue on in the years to come.
“We knew the Blue Room existed, we knew that Easthampton was really trying to revolutionize their art scene and the CitySpace in particular was trying to become an accessible space for artists to create and connect with the public,” Morbyrne said. “It was just a joy to realize that we could make it work there and that it was a vibrant downtown venue that you could get to on a bus, walking, driving, we really like to be accessible when we do shows, and we were just really excited to start this relationship.”
Both Hall and Morbyrne hope P*ssy Sludge can continue moving the positive momentum forward and hope audiences come ready for a unique show.
“I’m really excited for people to see this show, I think it’s gonna be like nothing people have seen before and I really hope for the show is that people leave with their cheeks hurting from laughing so hard and a million different questions about what the heck they just saw,” Hall said. “I also hope that audiences leave feeling like they saw a piece of themselves in the story, and I think they will.”
Morbyrne added, “There was a beautiful sentence that Rachel came up with for a grant we were writing about how like all of us have some version of our own sludge. The story centers that, it invites us to confront what our own sludge might be that we’re grappling with so I think that our efforts to network and outreach with different community organizations around having some resources for audiences around mental health, sexual health, empowered embodiment. I think there’s just a lot of communities that might not normally feel seen in storytelling and if they come to this show, I think they’re going to feel really seen in unexpected ways.”