When it was suggested that I should go see C’est Duckie!, a wildly popular performance troupe from London debuting in New York for a limited run, I did a little research to find out what I could before opening night. I looked at their website, read a piece published in The New York Times, and spoke to a friend who had already purchased tickets for her birthday, but none of this prepared me for what I experienced. I arrived with my girlfriend at the CSV Cultural Center on the Lower East Side last Friday night and walked into a large, black, very dark room with a few tables and a stage all surrounded by a curtain of multicolored metallic streamers. The void outside of this curtain of streamers felt very surreal and seemed as if we had just wandered into a side room of Willy Wonka’s factory. Who knew what would emerge from the darkness?
A waiter/actor appeared and suggested a bottle of champagne and we were given a menu to order from along with forty “Duckie dollars” for our table. The menu did not list food, but acts. Acts? Yes, acts. Twenty-two different delicacies to choose from including “Natcho Snatcho (pictured),” “Enter Me Lightly,” and “James Bond in Perverted Pussy.” With only forty Duckie dollars, it was a difficult decision, but we started with “Divided Diva.” This involved my petite girlfriend being sprawled across the table and getting sawed in half, during which she and everyone sitting at our table howled with screams and laughter. “Art Class” was next and a performer in a costume appeared who jumped on our table and struck a pose on all fours revealing exaggerated, hairy, fake genitals, which all of us sketched with a crazed fervor. (I must add that the charcoal and drawing paper provided for this act were of excellent quality). Our special of the week, “Drag Queen Under the Table,” was exactly that: A drag queen dove under our table, inciting a few odd looks and arm flailing along the way. The pace was maddening, the vibe was maniacal. As one act ended, another began. All of this table-top entertainment was interspersed with brief stage shows, which seemed like deleted scenes from Cabaret. I imagined that this is what a night out might have felt like in the underground during 1920s Weimar, Berlin.
I’ve seen quite a healthy dose of burlesque shows, Coney Island side-shows, strip-club acts and performance art in the last ten years while living in New York City, but C’est Duckie simply cannot be categorized.
It’s not a show. It’s an experience.
"C’est Duckie!” runs from Thursday, December 20 through Saturday, January 19, 2008 at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, NYC, (212) 352-3101.
12.29.07 6:57 AM CST by DG
Your review is spot on. btw: the show is presented by Performance Space 122
