Chanteuse
PLEASE NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the performances on July 28, 29, and 30 have been canceled.
Very little has been written about the tens of thousands of homosexuals, who were the damnedest of the damned, the outcasts among the outcasts in the concentration camps. There are really only estimates of figures. During the twelve years of Nazi rule, nearly 50,000 were convicted of the crime of homosexuality. The majority ended up in concentration camps, and virtually all of them perished.
This is one gay man’s story of struggle to avoid imprisonment by taking on his late landlady’s identity and becoming a female chanteuse in the supper clubs of Berlin in 1933.
In this tumultuous time of uneasiness, it would seem impossible to imagine that anything like the third Reich or imprisonment camps could happen again in this day and age. However with the anti-gay purge in Chechnya, with secret abductions, imprisonment, torture- and extrajudicial killing by authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation, one has to wonder if history can indeed repeat itself.
Chanteuse was written not only to tell the story of one man’s journey but also to warn us that sometimes history repeats itself.
Written by Alan Palmer
Music: David Legg
Lyrics: Alan Palmer
Directed by Dorothy Danner
Produced by: Palmer Productions
REVIEWS:
“A must see. Alan Palmer and the whole team have created a world that brings the Holocaust into a very personal journey that, quite frankly, I never considered on such a one-on-one level. Compelling and heart wrenching. Go. See It.”
-Sue Howell, Richmond News
“The applause was not for the experience we had all just shared. The applause was not for the message we were processing. The applause was for the messenger, and the brilliant and unpretentious way he delivered that harsh message.”
-Julinda D. Lewis, RVArt Review
“Awe inspiring! completely moving!”
-San Francisco Queer Solo
Updated: March 8, 2023
HERE is now a mask-optional space. All patrons attending HERE performances and events will no longer be required to wear masks.
We ask all audience members to please stay home if they have a sore throat, are feeling sick in any other way, or have been recently exposed to COVID-19, and to please contact the box office for refunds or exchanges.
All of our performers, technicians, and staff members are required to be fully vaccinated and masked unless they are onstage performing. Additionally, they are participating in an active testing regimen to keep everyone as safe as possible.
HERE reserves the right to revise protocols as the rate of transmission changes and in light of new scientific data that may present itself.
TUES-SAT, 7PM
SAT & SUN, 2PM
We want everyone to have access to groundbreaking art. There are ten tickets priced at $10 available for each performance on a first come, first served basis.