The minefield of misery
When your first play tackles prostitution and uses an epithet as a title, courting controversy must seem like a prerequisite rather than a privilege with your second major work.
But playwright and performer Rick Viede, who many will know by his YouTube and festival circuit star alter-ego Glace Chase, is looking at controversy rather than just causing it in his new co-production between Brisbane’s LaBoite and Sydney’s Griffin theatre companies this month.
His follow-up to the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and Griffin Award-winning play Whore, Viede’s A Hoax is a rumination on the phony misery memoir – think James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, JT LeRoy’s Sarah and Wanda Koolmatrie’s My Own Sweet Time.
Viede told the Star Observer that the need for a heart-wrenching and hyperreal backstory had never been more prevalent than with today’s saturation of “reality” programming.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fascinated with a story of pain and woe, but what really struck me is what we’re requiring from our stories,” he said.
“With the rise of reality TV — which is so heavily produced and constructed in terms of storyline, but sold as real — we’ve really demanded our stories are overly dramatic and real.
“I think they’re at opposing ends of the spectrum.”
As someone who’s created his own hyperreal persona in Chase — which, while not a drag queen, certainly lends itself to drag tradition — Viede is certainly well placed to explore the construction of identities for art, ethical or not.
He admits that Chase is an important part of his creativity and informs most of what he does, but that his portrayal of a gender-defying character in A Hoax grew more from frustration than familiarity.
Viede describes Tyrelle as beyond gender — a biracial effeminate homosexual who is almost drag or trans.
“I have a tendency to write stories about outsiders so that I may be able to reposition common assumptions about people and find new ideas,” he said.
“[Tyrelle] was based on a really dear friend of mine and I feel tired that we don’t represent a greater diversity of people on our stages.
“It’s our responsibilities as artists to make sure we go there and be more specific and bold in our characterisations.”
A Hoax is now playing at La Boite’s Roundhouse Theatre until May 26 and will be at Griffin’s Stables Theatre July 20 – September 1.
