EgoPo to Present Charles Ludlam and Bill Vehr's TURDS IN HELL

EgoPo will open the second mainstage show of their Queer Revolutions season with Charles Ludlam and Bill Vehr's counter-cultural classic, Turds in Hell. A catalyst for the queer, Camp aesthetic often seen in today's mainstream media, Turds remains as playfully subversive now as it was in 1969. This show runs April 9th-20th. Audiences will descend into Theatre Exile and find it transformed into an underground, queer nightclub where the lines between performance and reality blur.

Charles Ludlam was a pivotal Off-Off-Broadway figure whose gender-bending comedies contributed to the distinctly queer genre of the Theater of the Ridiculous. Co-written with Bill Vehr, Turds in Hell was the first play produced by their Ridiculous Theatrical Company and exemplifies the "ridiculous" aesthetic, offering a satirical and oftentimes chaotic look at societal norms and theatrical conventions. Early Ridiculous performances, created during an era defined by the 60's Sexual Revolution, Civil Rights Movement, and anti-war demonstrations, were meant to act as a form of resistance against a puritanical, anti-LGBTQ+ society. According to Director and Season Curator, Dane Eissler, using queer art as resistance is more important than ever.

"One can't turn on the TV or look at their phone right now without seeing the increasing threats against the liberties and lives of LGBTQ+ people. I mean, the fact that this season is Queer Revolutions - not in the singular, but multiple - speaks to the fact that we're constantly having to prove that we're here, we're queer, and we're not going anywhere. And so a show like Turds in Hell, a subversive queer, camp comedy once performed at midnight in an adult movie theater, becomes a vital form of resistance and builds community through a raucous celebration of identity and laughter in the face of oppression."

Turds in Hell follows Orgone, the sex maniac antihero of this experimental epic, as he traverses a world of angels, saints, devils, gamblers, nuns, and sex workers to find his mother, Turzahnelle. High comedy, low comedy, classical rhetoric, and sublime poetry blend together to produce an idiosyncratic view of contemporary sexual etiquette.

This production's immersive staging will have selected members of the audience sit on stage at cabaret tables, complete with preshow cocktail service, as the show unfolds around them. Audiences are encouraged to dress for a night out at the club as they enjoy themed cocktails, concessions, and more in the lobby.

For this production EgoPo has assembled an all-star, multidisciplinary cast that blurs that line between acting, drag performance, and cabaret artistry. EgoPo welcomes back Katherine Perry (The Devil), Jenna Kuerzi (Baron Bubbles), Christopher Marlowe Roche (Turzahnelle), Alec Lacher (Orgone), George McGriff (The Soldier/St. Frigid), and making their EgoPo debut are Messapotamia LeFae (The Angel), Bastion Carboni (Carla/Tryphoena), Nico Montalvo (Vera), and Adam Howard (St. Obnoxious).

Philadelphia Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. CATS (Shawnee Playhouse)

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3. NEWSIES (Viviana Theatre)

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