Writer: Bi-Curious George
Through the jungle mist emerges a budding wildlife expert, khaki-adorned and about to embark on a raucous romp through the animal kingdom, but not as we traditionally know it. Forget David Attenborough, Bi-Curious George, host of Queer Planet, has swept the wildlife scene, teaching audiences in Camden how the Animal Kingdom, queer to its core, has much to teach us about diversity, and how it is essential to our survival.
A cinematic soundtrack, worthy of the BBC, accompanies our wildlife enthusiast Bi-Curious George from the depths of the ocean to the tops of the trees of the Amazon to the ice sheets of Antarctica. With George’s guidance, we encounter dolphin orgies, intersex snails, gay penguins, dominatrix Angler fish, to name just a few. It is clear, queerness is all around. Through the medium of parody songs, monologues, dance routines and a fungi-cabaret striptease to the soundtrack of Piers Morgan, the journey through this Queer Planet is hilarious, exciting, and undoubtedly informative.
Bi-Curious George is everything you need. Perfectly placed songs, just the right amount of raunch in the striptease, and excellent nature-based punch lines. The production effortlessly oscillates from classic drag king gags to Attenborough-worthy monologues; it manages to encapsulate the actually expansive subject matter of queerness in the natural world (some facts clearly to the surprise of the audience too, at one moment an audible gasp of ‘really?’ the cause for a renewed round of giggles).
The parodies and audience participation (helped by this particularly willing Camden audience) go on for just the right amount of time, and the gags are numerous. With George’s skilful performance the energy of the audience doesn’t falter, a potential risk with shows based on science. Music, heavy use of lighting (normally to simulate a new nature landscape) and use of pre-recorded monologue keep the action continuous.
Scampering off stage intermittently, Bi-Curious George transforms into increasingly impressive animal cosplay, emerging into CPT’s black box theatre space to the admiration of the audience. An excellent seahorse, who nobly trades the responsibility of carrying offspring, a curiously fluffy gay albatross, a ginormous snail with an impressive sex drive. Whatever the animal, Bi-Curious George holds the willing audience in the palm of their hand (or often wing, or fin) and the effects are delightful for all.
For a night of queer, cabaret, drag-based fun, or even just to learn a new fact, catch and smash heteronormative binaries and discover a new Queer Planet.
Reviewed on 20 January then continues to tour including Soho Theatre on 16 February 2024
