The Quentin Crisp Archives: TheatreWorks about Quentin Crisp

THE QUENTIN CRISP ARCHIVES

TheatreWorks
about Quentin Crisp

Since year 2000 many interesting theatrical productions have occurred regarding the appreciation of the life of Quentin Crisp and his accomplishments. Rather astoundingly, actually. Mr. Crisp probably would have been amused by all the grand attention.

Quentin Crisp continues to be a worldwide phenomenon. Several plays about his life, and afterlife, have made appearances on stages in London, Brussels, Miami, San Francisco, New York, and in various theatres around the globe. Below are a few productions of note.

CARVED IN STONE | CIVIL | QUENTIN & I | RESIDENT ALIEN | TEA 'N CRISP

The wise and witty Quentin Crisp lives again in a heart-lifting new show Quentin & I, The New Mini-Musical. This clever new one-man one-act musical, starring David Leddick as Quentin Crisp, appears at The Club at LaMaMa ETC for two nights only: March 6 & 7, 2006! Quentin & I, The New Mini-Musical is about the flamboyantly eccentric international celebrity Quentin Crisp and Mr. Leddick's twenty-year friendship with him. Out of their friendship comes this new musical that tells the whole funny, touching story in words, song and dance. With libretto and lyrics by David Leddick, and music by Andrew Sargent, Quentin & I, The New Mini-Musical has ten original songs, ranging from English music hall to romantic ballad in style. Some of the songs are "I Was Disgusting," "I Welcome a Police State," and "Let's Get Dirty." The show debuted in Miami Beach in April 2005 to benefit the South Beach Gay Men’s Chorus.
CIVIL	In 1996 Robert Pacitti traveled to New York to meet and spend time with Quentin Crisp. Pacitti's ambition was to produce a new theatre work that took Mr. Crisp's infamous autobiography The Naked Civil Servant as its starting point. Civil is a response to Mr. Crisp's seminal book and explores issues of liberty and disobedience. The work explores notions of lineage, and becomes a process about letting go—of ownership, of origin, and ultimately of Quentin Crisp. Wishing to explore issues around disobedience and liberty Robert Pacitti saw Quentin Crisp as a forerunner to many of the then queer/post-gay identities of the day. Mr. Crisp had always run the gauntlet of public disapproval and at the time of their meeting, Mr. Pacitti wrote of him "I have seen the face of a parent." Civil premiered in Manchester in 1996, and was commissioned by Queer Up North Festival for that year and launched their 1996 Festival. It waws funded by the Arts Council of England and The London Arts Board.
In 2002, San Francisco's Eureka Theatre Company presented Carved in Stone, a play written by Jeffrey Hartgraves, featuring Quentin Crisp as a character in an afterlife group that includes Oscar Wilde, Tennesee Williams, and Truman Capote. In this comedy/drama, Capote, Wilde, Crisp, and Williams await you in an "afterlife lounge" for the ultimate after party, where truth is subjective, reality is debatable and death might just be a good career move. Richard Connema of Talkinbroadway writes, "Imagine four gay literary icons sitting around the 'afterlife lounge' in a special corner of heaven bitching and camping with each other. Imagine that a hot young hunk, who really does not know his sexuality and has just written a gay literary sensation before his death, has entered this sacred site. Apparently playwright Jeffrey Hartgraves and director John Fisher could imagine it well." Read Leon Acord's essay Becoming Quentin Crisp as to what it was like preparing for his role as Quentin Crisp in the play.
	Resident Alien, a stage adaptation by Tim Fountain and Quentin Crisp of Mr. Crisp's writings, showcased Bette Bourne and played a limited run at the New York Theatre Workshop during January and February 2001. The show made it's world premiere in London in 2000. Hailed by The Times of London as a "virtual obituary" for the famed "naked civil servant," Resident Alien imagines Quentin Crisp in his East Village flat on a recent day not long before his death. As the play proceeds, a view of the man behind the mascara is revealed through ruminations on life, love and the twentieth century. Drawing on Mr. Crisp’s writings and commentary, Resident Alien presents a dramatic literary tribute to a true original. Read the eulogies by Fountain and Bourne from the memorial tribute booklet, Quentin Crisp 1908–1999, now available online.
Tea 'N Crisp is a one-man show based on the writings and public appearances of the internationally precocious gay icon Quentin Crisp. Please note that this production is an unauthorized adaptation of Mr. Crisp's one-man show An Evening with Quentin Crisp, which is one element of Mr. Crisp's The Dusty Answers. The play was first performed during the 2007 National Gay Pride week in Berkeley, CA, by the playwright and actor Richard Louis James and presented by the Shotgun Players. Read a 2007 interview at Tea 'N Crisp Anyone? A Conversation with Richard Louis James and Phillip Ward.