New Theatre Company Revisits Banned Mae West Play

In celebration of Pride Month, Play Your* Part, a young Seattle-based theater company that produces plays to reduce social inequity, presents The Drag - A Homosexual Comedy in Three Acts, from June 5-29 at Gay City on Capitol Hill. This long-forgotten 1920's Mae West play contains frank portrayals of homosexuality and drag culture and starkly exhibits the discrimination that LGBTQ+ people faced-facts that made it so controversial that it was banned after only ten performances. Seen afresh, this funny, stylish, poignant play is at once a celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and an opportunity to reflect on the continuing struggle for equal rights. Be transported through history as the play evolves from stylized black and white to brilliant technicolor, and see the progress of the LGBTQ+ struggle come alive before your very eyes as we reflect together on progress yet to be made.

Play Your* Part has produced this play in partnership with the Gender Justice League, and proceeds from ticket sales will support their work. GJL is a civil and human rights organization which works through education, advocacy, and grassroots community-building to shift culture and policies relating to transgender rights. GJL is active on many civil rights related fronts in Washington state, including in pushing the state to adapt non-binary gender markers for birth certificates, which it achieved in 2018. At performances of The Drag , audience members will have the chance to translate their entertainment into engagement, by hearing about all of the services that GJL provides and the many ways in which they can get involved.

Play Your* Part invites you to celebrate Pride with Mae West's incredible, gender-bending play, brought back to life for modern audiences. Be dazzled and delighted-but most of all, moved-by how much this "vulgar" 90-year-old play can teach us about our past and about ourselves. Play
Your* Part is committed to accommodating all who wish to attend. To ensure accessibility, no audience member will be turned away due to lack of funds. The Drag runs June 5th through June 29th playing at Gay City's Calamus Auditorium 517 E Pike Street Seattle, WA 98122. All shows at 8pm except Sundays at 3pm. For tickets and more information visit

https://www.playyourpartseattle.org/tickets