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5
FE/MALE IMPERSONATION
The discourse of Camp
Kate Davy
In the course of what is still a relatively brief history of feminist criticism in
theatre, much has been written about work that originated in a woman-run
performance space in New York called the WOW Cafe. 1 As a collective endeavor,
WOW (Women’s One World) has no single artistic vision guiding its
productions; at base it is a producing organization that allows members of its
collective to showcase work. The result is a wide range of offerings each season
representing enormously disparate production types and performance styles.
WOW is as much a community as it is a theatre and because any member of the
collective can produce and perform—including women with no previous training
or experience in theatre—shows at WOW vary as much in quality as they do in
approach. WOW might be considered a kind of preeminent community theatre,
which is not to suggest that its importance lies primarily in its sociology. Some
of the most significant feminist theatre of the last decade was created by women
who started at WOW and most of these women continue to work there.
Despite vastly different artistic abilities and sensibilities, however, a common
and compelling feature of WOW performances can be identified, one that
distinguishes WOW work from that of other theatres. WOW productions
represent lesbian sexualities on the stage and presume lesbians as the audience.
Lisa Kron, a professionally trained actress and long-time WOW director and
performer, admits, “Sometimes our theatre is really rough. But the audience we
play for needs us. Lesbians never see themselves represented. And seeing
yourself represented is what makes you feel you have a place in the world” (qtd
in Chansky 39–41).
The world as constituted by lesbians and inhabited by lesbians is the premise
from which most WOW productions proceed, a premise whose consequences
radically shift the nature of the performative address. These are not “coming-out”
plays addressed to straight audiences in a bid for understanding and acceptance.
Nor are they plays about lesbian relationships within separatist communities.
Instead, parody is the staple of WOW productions, parodies that take on a wide
range of forms, from reworkings of classical texts, to spoofs on genres such as
the detective film, the romance novel, and the television talk show, soap opera,
or sitcom. Some WOW artists employ avant-garde strategies to make essentially
non-narrative work, pieces structured more like a poem than a plot. Performance