Gallathea

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gallathea Anita Raychawdhuri Gallathea Presented by The Show Must Go Online. Streamed live on YouTube via Zoom. 21 April 2021. Directed by Rachel Chung. Associate Director/Stage Manager/Master of Props, Emily Ingram. Produced by Matthew Rhodes. Composed by Adam Gibson and Steph Ferreira. Sound Operation by Cory Gibson. Choreographer/Movement Director/Swing, Victoria Rae Sook. Embedded Critic, Frey Kwa Hawking. With Angel Dumapias (Peter/Ramia/Venus), Eduardo J Pérez-Torres (Rafe), Ahd Tamimi (Tityrus/Astronomer), Emily Carding (Diana), Eugenia Low (Phillida), Michelle Kelly (Eurota/Nymph/Hebe), Shakira Searle (Gallathea), Guido Garcia Lueches (Prologue/Cupid) Ella Mock (Telusa/Other), Sawyer Kemp (Melibeus/Alchemist), Dafydd Gwyn Howells (Neptune/Mariner/Populus), Shamiso Mushambi (Robin/Larissa), Jordy Deelight (Dick/Agar), Harriet Sharmini Smithers (Swing/Ericthinis), Betsy Bowman (Swing/Agar), Lewis Allcock (Swing). Andy Kesson has attributed the “joy” of John Lyly’s Gallathea to the fact that “the queerness is already there” (Frankland and Kesson 291). There is no need to “queer” Gallathea as it’s already a celebration of queer love. The Show Must Go Online’s production of Gallathea captured this joy perfectly. Gallathea (1588) centers on a small village in Lincolnshire that must sacrifice a virgin to Neptune every five years. Tityrus and Melibeus are both worried their daughters Gallathea and Phillida will be sacrificed, and ask them to disguise themselves as boys and hide in the woods, where they meet and fall in love. Simone Chess, professor at Wayne State University, introduced Gallathea as the “queerest play in the Renaissance,” describing it as a “big gay secret [. . .] that we passed around our community.” In providing a critical framework to think about the performance, Chess introduced the work of sociologist Jane Ward and her concept of gender labor, the three aspects of which are the “labor of being a girl,” the “labor of alliance,” and the “labor of forgetting.” Due to the dated nature of the “labor of being a girl,” Chess turned primarily to the labor of alliance, or the collaborative work of producing and performing gender in community, and the labor of forgetting, or choosing not to know or linger on the history of trans and nonbinary people, but rather prioritizing seeing them as they are. Chess’s words echoed in my mind as I watched the production. I noticed the multitude of ways in which the characters would ally and forget as they playfully worked to explore pleasures, affirming and creating in the process. Chess celebrated the “diversely queer cast” and the “labor of the ensemble,” highlighting, for me, the power of community that plays like [End Page 144] Gallathea offer. Part of the queer possibility of Gallathea is the ending, in which Venus says that she will change one of the lovers into a boy, but we do not see this transformation on stage, and we do not know who will be changed, nor even what it means to change in this context. The “not-knowing” is crucial here, as it challenges our desire to have things explained or displayed. Lyly’s play centers the love of Gallathea and Phillida, who were played in this production by Shakira Searle (they/them) and Eugenia Low (she/her). Searle captured the confidence and kindness of Gallathea, demonstrating Gallathea’s comfort in their boyish attire as they explored new desire, and the ways in which they enabled Phillida to find ease in her body and love. Gallathea’s sly jokes about their gender and pleasures reflected what Searle referenced in the cast discussion as “dark humor,” which director Rachel Chung elaborated as a “shared comedic language that many queer people have.” Low’s portrayal of Phillida fantastically demonstrated the character’s growth from anxiety about her gender presentation to her flirtatious and self-assured conversations with Gallathea. While Gallathea’s initial anxiety stems more from their father’s disguise plot, Phillida does explicitly worry about her portrayal of a boy, saying “I like neither my gait nor my garments” (2.1.14). I appreciated how the production presented Phillida’s growth and eventual gender euphoria as she became affirmed through her love for and from Gallathea. This development was evident not only in her demeanor but...