Hyperfantasia at The Brick Theater
June 10, 2022

Co-Produced by Irene Lazaridis
Headpiece created by Carnation
Edibles by Amun’s Edibles

Calendar of Events:
June 3: C’était BonTemps & Pixel the Drag Jester
June 4: Queer Butoh: Will Atkins
June 5: Tallulah Talons & Esther & Iodine Quartz with Special Guest Deborah Maris Lader
June 8: Mizuho Kappa & Ezra Moth
June 9: J’royce Jata & Hodo Alien
June 10:  Senerio & Claywoman

Our existence is an elaborate joke: a stroke of dumb luck, a glint in the universe’s eye. What better way to acknowledge that fact than through a psychedelic cabaret, guided by the blind Prophet of the Underworld themself? Part musical and part otherworldly burlesque, Hyperfantasia served the wild, the wonderful, and everything in between.

The concept was cosmic: a variety show reexplaining evolution through the distinctly queer lenses in the iconic prophet’s sightless eyes. Our host was indeed a vision (pun intended). Clad in a sequined cerulean blazer left open to reveal a black patent leather corset and a shimmery green and gold unitard; crowned with a star-shaped, bespangled headdress with enough peacock feathers to make Hera jealous, Tiresias was iridescent and statuesque, androgynous and—ahem, eye-catching.

Tiresias strode onstage to welcome the first guests. In other evenings, other creatures roamed the stage: all manner of drag/drag-adjacent kings, queens, artists and things billed as curiosities that the prophet collected to illustrate the universe’s great variety.

Tonight, Claywoman brought ancient wisdom at a glacial pace, shuffling through gravity sinks and layers of history to deliver a few cute one-liners about her new book. Positively sedimentary, and so wise. In an abrupt energy shift, Senerio blasted us with sick and sickening beats, cackling between bars and waving sexy sinister gloves in defiant gestures. Sunglasses perched atop a majestic silver beaded veil gave Senerio an Anderson Paak aura- if Anderson Paak were a fashionable extraterrestrial.

Towering over us in black over-the-knee boots with a carapace-like iridescence, Tiresias relished the host role. Puckish and winsome as Willy Wonka or the MC in Cabaret but more like a gigantic dragonfly, Tiresias pursed green glitter-encrusted lips and stared through white contacts as they waved their long fingers around like antennae. A conduit, a medium: letting the universe speak through them.

Thus, the stage was set with wonders from far and wide. And now, for something completely different– Tiresias whispered with a wink, and with a wave of their hand…

The world! A chaotic swirl of color and light! A looping pedal and a mic and a universe whirling into view. The prodigious prophet turned out to be an expert musician, layering harmonies over harmonies into glittering sonic strata. Whirring atoms and brightly-colored waves shivered across Tiresias’ body and splashed against the back wall, plunging the stage into a bath of motion and light. The video shifted and blurred in time with the songs and narration, giving Tiresias an otherworldly aura.

The songs themselves described each phase of evolving life, from single-celled organisms to complex creatures. Then, there we were: homo sapiens- homo sexualsssss—Tiresias crooned, and we saw ourselves in all our glory and stupidity. The prophet’s eyes glittered. And, as we chanted, PREDATORS AND PREY! Tiresias smashed a dinosaur pinata into confetti.

Stage lights up. Look of consternation—must it be this way? The prophet pivoted, delivered a sincere redaction of Darwin’s cutthroat evolutionary thesis, and retreated to the piano for a song about a utopia that may or may not be called Hyperfantasia. A place where elaboration rules, where beauty and collaboration create change.

The lights went dark; the projections rainbowed and rippled a portal into spacetime again; the peacock feathers glistened and winked; Tiresias belted a stunning chorus, reprising the final song. And that’s when the edibles I’d purchased at the box office really kicked in.

This fantastical retelling of the creation of matter and the birth of humanity—skillfully rendered and just plain fun—emphasized the inherent queerness in all life. Tiresias’ perspective, the zany, omniscient vantage point of a mythical alien-deity, allowed for mystery and whimsy to permeate an otherwise serious scientific topic.

Would that Hyperfantasia were a weekly show, with more weirdos and additional complexities in the narrative arc! For now, we’re left with a few aphorisms for our nerves… Question everything. Laugh often. And be proud as peacocks, amoebas and hominids—you’re alive, and it’s June!