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EVENT REVIEW – PEACHES CHRIST – MIDNIGHT MASS – ALL ABOUT EVIL - ABANDON
NORMAL DEVISES OCTOBER 2010 MANCHESTER
You don’t just watch a Peaches Christ Midnight Movie presentation, you become part of it. The film has shown to rave reviews and audiences in the States for a year (being released there in 2009) before gaining its international premier in Manchester as part of the avante garde Abandon Normal Devices Festival on October 2cd 2010.
Volunteers were invited to join in with a pre-film stage show, which was to include, songs, dancing monsters, comedy routines, zombie performed theremin music, and, (kept top secret until the performance) a spoof protest by librarians, claiming to be angry at their profession being maligned as murderers in the film.
I volunteered to be a monster, one of eight, who had a few rehearsals to learn how to dance as Peaches Christ sang the Gore Gore Girl Song live on stage. Later rehearsals were with Joshua, and though hard work, especially for someone like myself with no dancing experience, it was great fun throughout. We met some of the cast, crew, wardrobe team, etc, and we all bonded as a happy family through our involvement in this unique and wonderful project.
Some of the team were playing characters that appear on screen, Mr Twigs, the psychotic, yet charming projectionist among them, superbly impersonated by a chap I congratulated for looking even more handsome off-screen. Jack Dinner, who has appeared in Star Trek, The Man From UNCLE & Mission Impossible (TV) plays the role on screen. Trixxie Carr, San Francisco Faux Queen, and a stunning cabaret chanteuse, took on the role of the main killer librarian, Deborah Tennis, played on screen by Natasha Lyonne, best known for her role in American Pie.
As well as Joshua / Peaches, cast members, and real life twins, Jade & Nikita Ramsey were also over for the premiere, and we had two non-twin actresses dressed as the evil twins to play them in the stage show too, creating several puzzled double looks from the audience.
After an initial meeting to discuss the project, an informal meeting with the director and his friends freshly arrived from the US, and three rehearsal sessions, the big night arrived. The tickets had already sold out before the show / film commenced.
We got into costumes, and some of us mingled with Cornerhouse customers, who took lots of photos of us. The Theremin players Will & Rick, were dressed as zombies, entertaining the bar-crowd, before moving to the main foyer. It was a warm happy atmosphere that helped to stop me from suffering too badly from nerves pre-performance.
The Librarians, many of them experienced burlesque performers, descended on the audience as they queued outside awaiting entrance, shouting protests against Peaches, dressed as nerds, and frumpy, deglamourised blue rinse figures. They bore placards with legends like “PEACHES IS NOT THE ONLY FRUIT, & BAG YOURSELF A TROLLOPE.
Some of the audience seemed unsure if it was a stunt, or if they were being challenged by a real group of fanatics. Matters reached a peak with the arrival of two police riot squad teams, who looked intent on making arrests until a few librarians broke character to assure them their activity was mere performance art. The police left them to it.
The audience was now allowed in to the cinema, with zombies, Will & Rick performing in the foyer as they made their way to their seats unaware that the librarians were also in the auditorium. Shushing noises to anyone chatting before the lights faded ought to have been a clue.
Now the show itself started, with Joshua finally showing his spectacular Peaches Christ dress regalia and spectacular wig, and we followed him to the stage, as a procession of the dammed, including werewolves, zombies, vampires in drag, Elsa Manchester, the Manchurian bride of Frankenstein, a busty clown appropriately called Cleavage, a Mendez goat inspired by the film The Devil Rides Out, and myself as Two Ton Tess Tickle, a Cthulhu creation. I handed flowers to a lady in the audience – not often a crab-monster gets to be romantic. My limited vision in my latex mask sent nearly stumbling going up the stage steps, and we breezed through our dance quickly to rapturous applause. We retired to the back rows, which had been reserved for us. Peaches and the twins continued to entertain the audience, and there was a fancy dress competition, with many in costumes that were every bit as good as our own monster wear. The winner and runner up (chosen by audience applause) each got a very generous supply of Peaches Christ merchandise.
The librarians pounced again now, interrupting Peaches before succumbing to the rhythm of the music and performing quite modest burlesque style lap dances for the audience, to much merriment by most though a few in the audience looked appalled, and some actually stormed out.
Peaches gave stage space to Trixxie Carr, who performed a brilliant song, with the stage twins as the real ones handed out Dixie cups to the audience, for a later sequence of events. Trixxie was now interrupted by Peaches, who saw her character as over-staying her welcome, and he wanted his mic back, but she left with a shock for him, showing Peaches Christ’s long suffering sidekick, Martiny Downsize, (in a pre-filmed sequence) being held captive and due to be murdered backstage – with the audience witnessing this unresolved cliff-hanger bombshell, the film itself now started.
ALL
ABOUT EVIL - THE FILM REVIEW
ALL ABOUT EVIL itself is great fun, and a true gore fest. It’s a homage and celebration of family run cinema (as opposed to dispassionate, soul-less multiplexes) and B-Movies. Several films are referenced here, especially with the opening credit scroll of B-Movie poster art. The title alone is of course a pun on a well-known Bette Davies movie.
Director, and writer, Joshua Grannell, as Peaches, a fabulous larger than life creation inspired by Divine, is the central character in several of his own short movies, but he restricts himself to a few scene stealing cameos here as his fabulous alter-ego, Peaches Christ, accompanied by Martiny, who’s presence reminds the audience instantly of the image of her shown right before the main film commences. .
Plot wise, this is a superior slasher flick. A crazed lady running a cinema down on its luck kills her mother, joint owner, and a librarian, when the latter tries to get the cinema shut down. – The murder is caught on the cinema’s CCTV, which the killer accidentally transmits to the main screen, where the audience thinks its part of the show – The audience wants more such entertainment so the cinema staff now unite and go on a Sweeney Todd killing spree making short snuff movies and piling the bodies up in the rafters until people begin to notice familiar faces and that various friends are missing. As the police net closes in, the murders become more desperate and extreme.
There are some very funny macabre moments – in a spoof French Revolution guillotining, the killers can’t get a woman’s head in the mall hole provided, and knock her senseless trying, so they put each of her breasts in one by one instead (a sequence that actually led one member of the audience to vomit (absurdly trying to contain the ejecting flood of bodily detritus into a Dixie cup far too small for the purpose) and a few to walk out in silent protest, but most people saw the gloriously gory funny side of it). The performances are way above average, especially by Natasha Lyonne, and Cassandra Peterson, best known for her starring role in Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark, as the hero’s mum.
The interactive impact of the stage show on the film became obvious with the rare sight of people clapping and cheering as recognizable characters appear on screen, eventually just applauding the film highlights as though it too was being presented live. When the on screen characters raise glasses for a toast (though their glasses are poisoned) many in the audience raised the Dixie cups presented by the same actresses, though without worrying that they too might be poisoned.
The final shoot out with the police and twins of evil involved is hilarious. Even without accompanying stage antics this film has cult classic stamped all over it.
The delightful in real life twin Ramsey sisters have a superb and uncanny ability to quite spontaneously complete one another’s sentences, which Peaches let them do on stage during the post-film thank yous before the long wonderful night finally drew to a close. .
THE OTHER WORK OF PEACHES CHRIST
Also post-movie, the monsters were invited to have more photos taken by the audience, and joined cast members for an impromptu after-show party. A few of us re-met the team the next day to watch a set of Joshua’s short movies, and accompanying question & answer session. It was a truly fabulous weekend.
Peaches Christ has released three of her films for free download on her website – well worth a look. We watched them during the festival activity – very funny horror film spoofs. The films, collectively known as the Tran-ilogy Of Terror, were SEASON OF THE TROLL – NIGHTMARE ON CASTRO STREET, & WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PEACHES CHRIST?
The first is a spoof of John Carpenter’s Halloween, and cheekily borrows its theme music. Peaches introduces a freakish mutant creature, Troll Girl into his stage show, only to find her trying to take over the show by killing off his assistant, Martiny, and then giving relentless pursuit to Peaches too. In Nightmare On Castro Street, which homages the Wes Craven Freddy Kruger film, a drunken drag queen consigned against her will to rehab by Peaches, gets free, goes back on the booze and goes after murderous revenge on Peaches and all her friends with hilarious results. In the final film of the Tran-ilogy, a spoof of the Bette Davies /Joan Crawford classic, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? it is Peaches who becomes a drunkard as Martiny rises to stardom, (A Star Is Born style). After what appears to be a tragic car accident or murder attempt, Martiny is crippled and bed ridden, and the action moves on several decades to a time when Peaches kills off their friends and even pets who get too close to the truth of that fateful night. It’s a brilliant twisted and condensed version of the original tale with several inventive moments, and the best of a tremendous trio of films.
We had also seen another Peaches short, CHILDREN OF THE POPCORN, spoofing Stephen King’s Children Of The Corn, in which Peaches seems to be running a murderous club of evil fiends, brainwashed by popcorn consumption, into which Martiny is finally dragged into full realization of the full horror. The film promotes Peaches, the Midnight Mass stage shows, and helped fund the All About Evil production by showcasing Joshua’s astonishing talents as a filmmaker on par with his own idol, John Waters.
IT’S
SAPIENS TO BE HOMO
My last contact with this year’s Abandon Normal Devises festival, which ran many more events than I attended, was a visit to a free lecture on gay rights, titled after a line in the Anthony Burgess novel, The Wanting Seed, in which the government dabbles disastrously with making homosexuality compulsory as a desperate population control measure.
The Burgess connection was obvious, as the event took place at the new International Anthony Burgess Foundation centre in the Manchester author’s home city, a performance space and café bar furnished with Burgess own books, furniture and musical instruments.
The panel event questioned whether anything is still taboo in the digital age, and had a chance to speculate on where queerdom, fetish art, and human sexuality in general could possibly go. The event was given poignancy for its proximity to a tragedy in the States where a young man committed suicide after friends released secretly filmed video footage of him having gay sex as a malicious prank on the Internet. This was just the latest in a growing and disturbing trend in the States for teen suicides caused by bullying and peer group pressure.
The three speakers were Trixxie Carr, fresh from the Midnight Mass, David Anderson, an expert and lecturer on gay politics, and an old friend of mine, performance poet, Gerry Potter, now performing as himself, but who used to perform as ‘gingham diva’, Chloe Poems, an act who it would have been fascinating to see share stage space with Peaches.
David Anderson spoke with some knowledge of the commercialisation of subculture in our inner cities, highlighted by references to the groundbreaking Russell T. Davies series Queer As Folk, set heavily around Manchester’s Canal Street Village gay community. The show helped break many misconceptions of queer folk, but created fresh stereotypes such as Stuart, the affluent gay living at the heart of the Village, easily attracting lovers and being totally hedonistic, while less affluent gays, such as Vince, typically less good at pulling partners, are living further out (Fallowfield in his case), The show made the word ‘Controversial’ a good way to promote a product, especially in the arts – interest was generated in advance by highlighting the show as ‘controversial’, and other productions add the word to publicity material now almost as a standard and a cliché.
For me, the series helped to ghettoise the Village, attracting more and more tourists, and driving out the very people they came to gawk at. Gay Pride festivals have become more and more crassly commercialised and many gay people resent having to pay to get into a district and to pubs they frequent for free the rest of the year round, outside the festival time.
David also spoke of media control of the public perception of gay issues. He told us how in China, the anglo-European editions of the papers are carefully edited to present a liberal attitude to homosexuality in the interests of international relations and trade negotiation, etc. He argued convincingly that the Market, though seen by many as corporate and greedy, has done a great deal for gay rights, recognizing the potential to sell to subversive, and sub-culture groups. The Village grew from Manchester’s Labour local government trying to appear more liberal and cosmopolitan to compete with other cities.
Trixxie spoke of her experiences as a San Francisco Faux-Queen, a Victor-Victoria style performer as a woman pretending to be a male performer dressed in drag, at the highly influential Trannyshack theatre shows (at which Peaches also performs and compeers on many occasions). Trannyshack presents the most confrontational punk cabaret, challenging audience perceptions, expectations and assumptions about homosexuality.
Gerry performed two of the poems he first generated for his Chloe Poems stage persona, The Effeminate and I Want To Be Fucked By Jesus, deeply personal, and acidic, yet tender and honest. Gerry felt that many people seem to be trying to be queer or sensitive to queer issues to be able to fit in, and accepted as normal. To quote Gerry “Queer is politically schizophrenic’.
A very relaxed and thoughtful Question & Answer session followed, with the talks never becoming heavily academic or over-intellectual, but always being thoughtful and provocative.
IN GRATITUDE
After a quick drinks break with some of the last of the festival organizers and participants, the festival was over for me at least, though the friendships and memories will undoubtedly last considerably longer. A huge thanks to Joshua Grannell / Peaches Christ, Trixxie Carr, Tria Connell, (Peaches’s costume / wardrobe director), the twins (both sets, especially the lady who I had to repeatedly club down with my giant latex crab claw in rehearsals and in the show-dance itself), my friend from the ‘Faint Fascinations; modelling & Photography group, Princess Of Darkness, who first drew my attention to the project, all of the monsters, librarians and other event participants, and a final very special thanks to Bren O’Callahan, Cornerhouse Cinema and Abandon Normal Devises Festival co-ordinator who worked incredibly hard for everyone and stepped in himself as a last minute replacement when one of the monsters was sadly unable to join us. You did an amazing job Bren. Cheers.
LINKS
PEACHES CHRIST http://www.peacheschrist.com/
THE PEACHES CHRIST TRAN-ILOGY OF TERROR http://www.peacheschrist.com/?page_id=185
TRIXXIE CARR – www.trixxie.carr.com
ABANDON NORMAL DEVISES – www.andfestival.org.uk
TRANNYSHACK – http://www.heklina.com/
THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION – www.anthony.burgess.org
MEDIA FEATURE ON SOME RECENT GLBT SUICIDES http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=&sc3=&id=111436
GERRY POTTER PERFORMING ‘THE EFFEMINATE’ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZ2jryrI3U
CHLOE POEMS (GERRY POTTER) ‘MY GAY HALO’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVzBVLdbWTI&feature=related
A note on my own monster dance costume. Most of the monsters created their own amazing costumes especially for the Midnight Mass performance. I fell back on a costume created for me by good friend, Tom Clark, to illustrate my short story performance piece, Blind Date. Inspired by my love of H P Lovecraft, I created the character Alfred J Cthulhu, a lovesick chaos demon, and Tom latexed the mask & claws to my general descriptions – J. Alfred appeared at a few poetry shows and science fiction conventions in the early Noughties. He won the best amateur costume award at the Torcon World Science fiction convention in Toronto in 2003, receiving a certificate from Discworld author, Terry Prattchett. Midnight Mass asked monsters to choose silly double entrende names, so J Alfred Cthulhu cheerfully became Two Ton Tess Tickle for the night, and enjoyed himself immensely. The original Blind Date story can be seen here http://arthurchappell.me.uk/story-blind.date.htm
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
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