TOMBOY (CHŁOPCZYCA): THINK ABOUT IT

This production of Anais Mateusz West’s new script, Tomboy (Chłopczyca), held my attention. The intriguing thing for me is figuring out why it did — and I don’t mean that as a diss.

Given my framing, it’s probably best to start with the ways I thought Tomboy (Chłopczyca) might lose me. I’ll get to that right after I give you a quick synopsis.

Aleks, the main character, is a trans guy and an upiór, a type of Slavic vampire generally believed to have two souls. In West’s telling at least, an upiór also achieves shapeshifting powers after their first soul dies. Using the trans/shapeshifting/vampire overlap, West explores Aleks’s complicated relationship to maleness and masculinity. In flashbacks, we see teenage Aleks pre-transition, when Aleks is turned on by a swaggering young guy named Konrad, who also turns out to be an upiór. Within the religious and social constraints of their Polish immigrant community, Aleks is attracted to Konrad’s reckless power but, as they matures, Aleks gets a clearer bead on the damage Konrad has done to multiple young women: Konrad needs blood to survive, after all. As a man, how can Aleks redefine maleness in their own body?

This is an intriguing framework, but it also feels a bit like an introduction to an essay by a postmodern theorist, maybe Michel Foucault. That’s the biggest problem I have with Tomboy/Chłopczyca: it feels fundamentally abstract and theoretical. Enormous damage is done to bodies in this story, for example, but that damage never feels concrete. We don’t see it, which is fine, but nobody in the story seriously clocks it either; nobody shows up with significant injuries, which makes no sense. In Tomboy/Chłopczyca, the theory/idea/theme takes precedence over the narrative — and significantly undermines it.

Speaking of the primacy of theory over story, Aleks ignores Konrad’s behaviour until, quite suddenly — and largely inexplicably, given the developments we’ve witnessed — Aleks doesn’t.

I’m saying this despite the following. In the first two movements of the script, we run though a long series of flashbacks twice. There is some reward and sophistication in this: we see Aleks move from denial/repression into growing understanding that implicates Alex. Cool. But this takes too much theatrical time, in my opinion, and doesn’t prepare us sufficiently for the big change in the evening’s second half. That said, I was relieved when the plot started moving more significantly after the interval.

Given my concerns, what made me hang in with Tomboy (Chłopczyca)?

The show’s exploration is unmistakably sincere, which results in a compelling innocence and vulnerability. These qualities are present in the writing and in all three performances: Rae Takei as Aleks, Calder White as Konrad, and Emily Jane King as Aleks’s best friend Hania and a couple of Konrad’s dude pals. Takei is so confident and charming, one of those performers I could — and did — happily watch all night.

Tomboy (Chłopczyca) is also formally ambitious. I don’t think the dance elements choreographed by Oh Augustine always work, but they do add variety and much-needed embodiment.

Besides, I can’t remember the last time I was given the opportunity to meditate on trans experience through the metaphor of vampirism. Seriously, I’m grateful for the intellectual challenge, audacity, and uniqueness of Tomboy (Chłopczyca).

And the script’s concerns resonate. That’s true for me as a gay man who has spent decades negotiating and redefining my maleness. And I think it resonates broadly in this moment in which the cultural script for masculinity is being rewritten, especially in younger generations and, notably, in trans lives.

TOMBOY (CHŁOPCZYCA) by Anais Mateusz West. Collectively guided by Anai Mateusz West, choreographer Oh Augustine, and dramaturg Joanna Garfinkel. Coproduced by Anais Mateusz West and the frank theatre company. In The Cultch’s Vancity Culture Lab on Thursday, March 5. Continues as part of The Cultch’s Warrior Festival until March 8. Information about this production. This show is sold out and chances of getting in are small, but you can get on the waiting list by emailing The Cultch’s box office: boxoffice@thecultch.com.

PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Calder White and Rae Takei by Kimberley Ho.)

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