Gay themes at the 2016 Philly Fringe

We're making progress, I hope, when it's hard to tell gay-themed plays from the rest. As this year's GayFest! proved, plays with gay characters can and do succeed with audiences who aren't gay, because everyone can relate. Nevertheless, some Fringe offerings stand out as being of special interest for those seeking plays with gay themes.

Not for the faint of heart

Bastion Carboni, whose Poison Apple Initiative blew my mind with his powerful play Sometimes Callie and Jonas Die last year, returns with An Obviously Foggot (September 14 - 18), which explores the effects of internalized homophobia and transphobia on the gay bar social climate through a drunken mess of original and found text, reconstituted pop songs, and broken dance parties. Judging from last year's show, this is not for the faint of heart.

Haygen Brice Walker also scored big in last year's Fringe, with Spookfish. He and On the Rocks return with Birdie's Pit Stop (and the tribe of queers who fucked everything up) (September 9 - 17), the second of his Dead Teenager Trilogy. Aside from his obvious talent with titles, Walker's got a flair for comedy with a dark, nasty edge. This new play features "the shittiest bar in the shittiest part of the shittiest town," invaded by queers on a mission. Elaina Di Monaco directs a cast led by Campbell O'Hare and Jenna Kuerzi. This is so not-for-the-faint-of-heart that audiences are required to sign a waiver.

Real-life inspiration, an imagined future, and Martha

Casabuena Cultural Productions' The Church Bells All Were Broken (September 16 - 24) is by Dave Ebersole, who's also a popular writer of comic books with gay characters and themes. The notorious Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for picketing soldiers’ funerals with anti-gay signs, inspires his new play. It focuses on two young members of the family that runs such a church, and challenges us to see all sides of the controversial issues.

Big Crunch (September 15 - 23), by TOLVA/Sam Congdon, imagines a society in which gender roles are strictly enforced by a ruthless government. The only person who can stop it may not be a person at all, but a sentient robot. TOLVA is Sam Congdon's alter ego, a space princess, and they use live solo performance, experimental electronic music, video, and new media in this odyssey of sex, gender, and technology.

Of course, the biggest (and hardest to score tickets for) gay-related Fringe event will be the Fringe's closing night bash featuring the Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret (September 24). Dito van Reigersberg's hairy-chested, six-foot-tall character is "the Drag Queen King," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and will host a spectacular drag cabaret.