Beast of Times

See it. It was as if someone took one of our class discussions, put everyone in animal costumes and added lights and music.

Adelina Anthony and D'Lo are the only two actors in, what is essentially, an ensemble character performance. Opening with Adelina and D'Lo as the pets of a lesbian couple in Berkely, it follows their personal journeys through the current political climate. Adelina's primary character is a kitten who is spayed before she has a chance to fully develop a sexual identity. D'Lo plays a blind dog who travels to "The Trial of the Century" (guess what that is.) The narrative breaks between those storylines with the testimony of other animals at the trial.

The performance was incredibly funny (see it for nothing other than Adelina's kitten riding the back of a tortoise on a skateboard to "Ridin' Dirty") and incredibly powerful. For me, the most difficult scene to watch was Adelina's kitten's soul memory recall, in which she recounts the hidden sexual violence inflicted upon women in the last 100 years. After, Adelina collapsed on the stage, coughing out tears, and I realized that I had gone from laughing myself into stitches to trying not to throw up and crying. Its through these emotional ambushes that The Beast of Times deconstructs issues of gender, race, privilege and sexuality.

I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave it here, but if you need a diversion or a date idea - go!