“Pansy” – Prancing As Fast As He Can

By Ron Merk

Run as fast as you can so The New Conservatory Theater in San Francisco to see Evan Johnson’s one-man show, “Pansy.” Evan Johnson created the show in collaboration with Ben Randle, and stars in a true tour-de-force performance as Michael and the titular character Peter Pansy. Evan reaches out to the audience in an amazing, truly fierce piece of acting, and takes us back in time to 90s San Francisco, and to the life of a club kid named Peter Pansy who creates his own world, a regular club event called Neverland, and then watches that world crumble as friends and lovers are affected by AIDS. He talks about the last days of disco as a cultural watershed and the basis for the open culture that we live in today in San Francisco.

The story in brief: Michael discovers a time capsule in his basement, a box left behind by someone he’s never met, but gets to know in an intimate way. As Michael looks through VHS tapes, audio cassettes and wrinkled party fliers, parallels begin to emerge between his life and that of 90s gay club kid Peter Pansy. We flash back and forth in time, between Michael and Peter (yes, of course, names from J.M. Barrie’s children’s classic “Peter Pan”) and learn something deep and touching about each of them. Evan’s ability to infect the audience with the pathos that each of these characters experiences is palpable and moving. He is a superb actor in top form, in one of the best performances I have seen in the theater this year. This is a no-holds-barred in this pedal-to-the-metal performance, in which Evan takes us on an all-out thrill ride through the darkness drug use, the plague of AIDS and the pain of despair, straight on ’til morning.

The production is first class, with great costumes and props, backdrops painted on cloth, and video projections that capture both the zeitgeist and video technology of the 90s.

If you have any “pixie dust,” FLY to the New Conservatory Theater before this short-term engagement ends. Or you can use modern technology and view the trailer here.

Pansy Teaser Trailer from Ben Randle on Vimeo.

or find information and buy tickets: http://www.nctcsf.org/press_room/pansy.htm