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Celebrating identity on Munjoy Hill

The Femme Show

By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 4, 2009

Wild costumes. Ironic and serious props such as Barbie dolls and hula hoops. Everyone's favorite form of performance art: burlesque. Also dancing, storytelling, acting, and film. All these things, and more, will be part of the Femme Show, which makes its triumphant return to the Portland stage on Friday, March 6, at the St Lawrence.

In addition to performances from the core Femme Show team, which bloomed out of the cheers-for-queers Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, this incarnation will feature Portland artists on stage as well.

Here's a run-down of the featured pieces:

"Bitches with Barrettes: Love is A Battlefield;"

"Femme Lesson Number Two" is Havalah Backus and the Femme Show ensemble in a harrowing and hilarious story about assumptions and mistaken identity;

"Check One Please" looks at the conundrum of having to choose a label for one's gender;

In "Domination Barbie," Barbie calls a press conference to announce her new identity as a postmodern feminist and performance artist; "Phyllis and Beatrice's Guide to Revolution and Comportment for Feminine Sapphists;" and A spoken-word performance by Alicia Greene and Amy Rain Adams.

With so many exciting things happening on the GLBT policy front (gay marriage might come to Maine; legislation to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was proposed in the US House earlier this week), this seems an ideal time to celebrate all our different conceptions of self, identity, gender, and sexual orientation. Not that we actually need any excuse to do so.

The Femme Show will go up at 7 and 9:30 pm on Friday, March 6, at the St Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St. Tickets are $15 and are available at Bull Moose stores or at stlawrencearts.org.

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