The T Party

Company One is known for never shying away from edgy work, and the troupe lives up to its reputation with the New England premiere of Natsu Onoda Power's "The T Party."

What's the show about? Gender identity, sexuality, and the freedom to pursue life and liberty and all those American ideals no matter what pronoun you use (assuming you use a pronoun at all).

This is a huge, complex, and sticky subject, both politically and socially. (The show wisely doesn't get embroiled in the religious dimension.) How can theater even begin to address all the interrelated, intersectional topics that constitute the topic? It's not just a matter of trans issues or trans rights; the entire notion of the gender binary world as normative comes into question when you hear stories of people who don't simply shift from one gender expression to another, although there are moving tales of how some people need to slip the bonds of "assigned" gender (with all the baggage of social expectation that entails) and embrace their true identities, which may or may not correspond with their physiologies. (And human physiology is not always as clear cut as received wisdom would have one think. This is an especially complex subject for those who are born intersex, which is to say, with ambiguous genitalia.)

If you stroll into the theater space expecting a heartfelt drama, a sob story, or a slightly bitter cutting-edge comedy, well, don't. As the program notes advise, "leave your expectations at the door." What you're getting into is an evening of dance, open mic, performance art, piquant and funny sketches, and raw personal expression. This isn't traditional theater, but rather a living and pulsating organism of art.

As such, "The T Party" is happy to refrain from long-winded explanations. The closest we get is a sketch in which a cross-dressing straight man quizzes a trans escort about her outlook and choices while a waiter, hovering nearby, becomes increasingly involved, though never directly, in the exchange. One of the show's best lines arises from this scene, when the cross-dressing man's cis-female friend asks the waiter whether the establishment restroom is all-gender. "It is now," the waiter responds.

That's exactly that sort of pragmatic, non-judgmental acceptance and flexibility of mind and heart that the show asks for and hopes to encourage. The avenues to that lofty destination are numerous, from a hip-hop recasting of an academic paper on the sexual habits of bottle-nosed dolphins (seagoing mammals that are happy to get it on in any gender combination) to a classroom setting in which a non-binary educator answers the questions of a group of eager second-graders ("China!" is one of a half-dozen larky, and wittily spot-on, responses to the question of where babies come from.)

Of course, the show also acknowledges that not every element of the LGBTQIA -- and the rest of the alphabet, including Greek letters and special characters -- community has a perfect open-door policy; in one offbeat, and hilarious, segment, Goldilocks finds herself less than welcome when she stumbles upon a club that caters to -- wait for it -- bears. But no one here is claiming to be perfect; rather, they're asking for the latitude to make their own mistakes, their own decisions, and their own discoveries, without being subjected to moralistic lashings of the physical, legislative, or theological sorts.

The show may be free-form, but the cast excel in keeping the material under control, flowing smoothly, and always on-track and on center, with Power herself directing the production. There's a joyously open, big-tent atmosphere to the production, which summarizes the power of theater to respond to world events by updating us: When the play was in rehearsals in various cities and years, we hear, trans women of color were murdered, trans rights secured in Massachusetts, people dancing at a gay nightclub in Orlando were gunned down by a madman with an assault rifle. What do trans, genderqueer, and non-binary issues have to do with you? Everything. You come into this show's theater space and the show, in turn, comes into your head space. We're all connected, and what hurts one part of our community hurts us all.

What you experience in the room doesn't stay in the room: It comes out the door with you. If that's not the highest priority and principle of theater, then I don't know what is.

"The T Party" continues through July 31 at the Boston Center for the Arts. for tickets and more information, please visit https://companyone.org