Oli Fuller
A campy comedy horror which uses vampirism as a beautiful metaphor for queerness.
It’s A Struggle Coming Out follows Em, a young goth woman who is a member of the Catholic church and challenges herself to convert the local outcasts: the vampires. Em is drawn to their lifestyle, and as she fights for them to convert, she realises that maybe she’s the one who needs saving.
It’s A Struggle Coming Out is silly and fun with moments that left me giggling. The comedy and relationship dynamics take clear inspiration from the world of musical theatre, with the four main girls being akin to a ‘Mean Girls’ quartet. Multiple jokes throughout make the not-so-subtle reference to ‘Heathers’ and ‘Waitress’. The representation of lesbianism is wholesome, while still falling back on humorous stereotyping.
My praise goes to the cast, who did an outstanding job in this piece. The shining star of this piece was the Pastor, gloriously camp and perfectly portrayed in their exaggerated capitalism of the Catholic church.
There are moments of this play that are incredible, moments of humorous perfection, of whimsy and silliness and queer excellence, but there are also moments that made me somewhat uncomfortable.
The presentation of Judaism at points is particularly problematic. Jacob portrays a positive reference as a kind and gentle jewish man, however the scene where he takes girlfriend Raelynn to meet his Rabbi is done with insensitivity. The representation of a Jewish place of worship in this scene is supposed to align with Raelynn’s warped perspective – as someone inside a cult of Catholicism – however the show represents them as haunting hooded figures, whom Raelynn finds terrifying. This feels in poor taste given the current political climate.
Worse still was the use of a transphobic slur as a one-off joke. Uttered not by a trans character. Though the show may have trans cast members, as a show not exploring trans identity, making no effort to alert or teach anti-transphobia after using this slur, it feels like transphobia played for laughs. While I understood this was never their intention, and I believe the writers meant no harm, these moments overshadowed the better moments of the show.
I wanted so much to love this show, and at times I did. The intimacy of subtle sapphic touches, eye contact, and the exaggerated humour of the piece meant it was gorgeously camp fun, but I cannot overlook the places this took me which were categorically not enjoyable.
As a show with potential, it is a shame that it was let down by a few distasteful moments that feature marginalised identities as a joke.
Recommended Drink: The blood of a deer, disguised as red wine.
Catch It’s A Struggle Coming Out at theSpace @ Niddry St from August 8-13 at 18:05 (55mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Salvador Kent
Romeo Lau
