Theater is a tricky business. Because of the live nature of the art form, you put your fate in the hands of an audience that can choose at any time to torpedo the carefully constructed atmosphere. It happened at the premiere of Queen of Disco from urban production house RightAboutNow: a confused-looking man eventually had to be kicked out because he kept shouting throughout the performance, eventually even with racist slogans. Tribute to the players is in order – they quickly recovered with the support of the sympathetic public, thus defusing the grim atmosphere.
However, the performance also has to contend with more structural problems. Queen of disco tells the story of queer disco legend Sylvester, who was regarded as an emancipatory icon for the lgbtqi+ community of the 1980s. Author Maarten van Hinte, however, wants to include so many historical subjects in his text that the script collapses under them: because the players mainly address the audience directly to convey all that information, there is not much room left for the dramatic development of the characters, who remain very schematic.
In the moments when dance and music take over, the performance gains in depth. Dancer Robathy Corea perfectly conveys the liberation that Sylvester found in his music and self-styling in his choreographies – the latter is emphasized again by the imaginative, gender-fluid costumes of Iris Elströdt and Stef Krull. And with his impressive falsetto singing voice, Urvin Monte convinces in the lead role, especially in a beautiful scene in which he switches back and forth between a frenzied performance and the loss of his beloved to AIDS. This is how . becomes Queen of disco still a moving portrait of a man for whom the disco culture was both an emancipation platform and a refuge from harsh reality.