Queen by Kyle J. Schmidt
Synopsis
Self-dramatizing, decadent, and supremely dressed, Queen Marie is a
ruler of uncompromising brutality. When revolutionaries storm the
gates, Queen Marie keeps her head but loses her hands
(literally). Narrowly escaping the palace with her lover, her
servant, her nephew, and an all-powerful Narrator who describes events
as they occur, Queen Marie vows to retake the throne (and maintain her
sense of pageantry). After fashioning new hands out of junkyard
materials, the Queen travels through an absurd war-torn fantasyland
with her ragtag bunch of enabling cohorts hiding from revolutionaries,
rallying the masses, and trying to wrench meaning from a world erupting
in the fevers of late capitalism and neo-globalism. Along the
way, the Queen must undergo a series of ugly humiliations: selling
wares, wearing pants, handling currency, posing for photographs, and
performing in a cover band. But no disgrace is too great to halt
the Queen from singing, dancing, and massacring her way back to the
throne.
Part modern manifesto and part spectacular fantasy (but performed in
all drag), Queen is theatre with gloves off, dresses on, and glitter
make-up meticulously applied around the eyes.