A Life in Three Acts
Opening Night: March 8, 2010
Closing: March 28, 2010
Theater: St. Ann's Warehouse
A Life in Three Acts is a living, breathing history edited and adapted from a series of private conversations between two friends, recreated on stage, reminiscing about the life and times of Bette Bourne. The story moves from Bourne’s post-war childhood to his first walk across Trafalgar Square in drag, accompanied by four gorgeous friends, to his seminal role in the formation of the Gay Liberation Front. He recalls his life in a drag commune, the creation of the groundbreaking BLOOLIPS company in London and New York, and more, to reveal an extraordinary portrait of an individual and a movement.
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March 8, 2010
Next stop Dumbo, for those of you participating in the city’s unofficial spring festival of gay theater. You’ve clucked, sorrowed and sighed at “The Pride”: plus ça change, plus c’est la même self-esteem issue. You’ve done the same while admiring the cat claws at the Transport Group’s you-are-there revival of “The Boys in the Band.” Perhaps you’ve also absorbed some history lessons at “The Temperamentals,” and swooned (or snickered) at the dream ballet in “Yank!,” the musical about soldiers in love in World War II.
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March 8, 2010
At 70 years old, Bette Bourne is filled with a vitality that positively radiates from the stage in the autobiographical two-hander, A Life in Three Acts, now at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Written and performed with playwright Mark Ravenhill, this utterly charming show details the British drag icon’s life and work, and serves as an informative and entertaining history of some of the changes and developments that have affected gay culture in the last 50 or so years.
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March 18, 2010
Pity the homophobes of Brooklyn. If one of them dares mess with iconic drag star Bette Bourne as the latter heads to St. Ann’s Warehouse to perform his sweetly intimate A Life in Three Acts, there’ll be trouble. Bourne may favor a sequined, androgynous top and red lipstick, but don’t be fooled: Under pressure, that demi-feminine facade will slip and out from his mouth will pour a torrent of Cockney “fishwife,” as he puts it.
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March 7, 2010
Mark Ravenhill likes to use the creative ferment of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to bend the playwriting rules. In 2007, his "Ravenhill for Breakfast" was a daily series of plays performed, script in hand, almost as quickly as he wrote them. This year, he conducted interviews with actor Bette Bourne, founder of Brit drag troupe Bloolips, turning the transcripts into three-hour-long performances that re-create those conversations virtually word for word. In practice, it’s hardly more experimental than a celebrity chatshow, but the performance is made compelling by the charismatic Bourne and his fascinating story of gay activism and a life in the theater.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 27, 2010
A Life in Three Acts couldn’t come at a more perfect time; it is LGBT History month and the 40th anniversary of the Gay Liberation Front. However, this is much more a coming-of-age story than it is one of coming-out.
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