By Erin Fleming
Kiss my lips. She did.
Kiss my lips again she did.
Kiss my lips over and over and over again she did
How is it, how is it, as it is, that all the straight men
over the years, all the men
the men loving women, the women-loving men
writers, poets, playwrights, novelists
have written and have written they have
written, as it is, about loving a woman and yet
yet all the straight men, all those centuries of sonnets,
all those years of words,
about bodies and sex and love and sex and women and sex
H
ow is it, all those men, all those years, did not capture
could not, did not, would not capture what it is, quite
how it is, how, what, as it is
to love a woman
until, and then, and then, she came and
moo
she came and did it
Gertrude did.
She wrote about loving a woman for the first time
her first time, our first time
the world’s first time
Kiss my lips. She did.
Kiss my lips again she did.
Kiss my lips over and over and over again she did.
I have feathers.
Gentle fishes.
Lifting belly is so kind.
No wonder Hemingway loved/hated/wanted/wanted to be her.
Imagine.
Loving Repeating
Kokandy Productions at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont
75 minutes, with no intermission
When Gertrude Met Alice.
a musical love story
a treat for fans, scholars, voyeurs, young lovers
a night at the salon
the reinvention of language
words, love, marriage, modernism,
the birth of (butch) cool
Set designer Ashley Ann Woods
recreates the art collection of 27 Rue de Fleurus
the pieces are integrated,
literally
as they were for Gertrude: collector, curator, arbiter
Stephen Flaherty’s music repeats and repeats
scoring and encoring the core and then more
the musicality of Gertrude’s muse & musings, amusingly
musical
moo-cycle
Director Allison Hendrix assembles an essential ensemble
Amanda Giles (Gertrude) & Emily Goldberg (Alice) magnetically in love
Maisie Rose (is a rose is a rose is a rose is irresistibly watchable)
Sarah Hayes, Stephanie Stockstill
Andrew Lund, Jake Morrissy, George Toles
invite us to have as much fun as they’re having
we comply
Caron Buinis, as iconic older Stein
shines
watches and listens and speaks and speaks of listening
icon, deacon, beacon from above
we love
Hendrix paces quickly,
sweetly
some moments maybe too quickly,
some moments maybe too sweetly,
might have a little too sweet, not enough heat
re-heating, repeating,
warm, not hot
missing the hot
is there ever enough hot?
still, the sweetness lingers
fingering through
moo
the pages, turning
of the life well-lived, the wife well-loved
If you see one musical
based upon a lesbian love story
with entire songs dedicated to the female orgasm
this summer
this should be the one
How is it.
What is the answer? There is no answer? Well, then there is no question.
Should you see Loving Repeating?
No question.
moo
Kokandy Productions
“Loving Repeating”
The life, love, and works of Gertrude Stein with her own words set to music by Tony-Award winning composer Stephen Flaherty.
Theater Wit
1229 W. Belmont, Chicago
Playing through August 30, 2015.
Tickets here.
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