Philly Fringe 2025: Wolfsmouth Players Company presents Laura Anthony’s Queerano, or a Very Great Mischief

I thought the show sounded like subversive fun. It comes to our Fringe (running through September 20 at the Walnut’s third-floor Independence Studio) from New York-based Wolfsmouth Players Company, established in 2021 to develop meaningful and relevant new work with a queer lens. Queerano is a mashup of Cyrano de Bergerac, Twelfth Night, and Wildean farce that examines Sapphic love in 1921 England. The show is entertaining, but combining queer history with satirical farce produces mixed results.

Cyrene, Roxane, Antony, and Christine

Written by Laura Anthony and directed by L.A. Mars, co-artistic directors of Wolfsmouth, the play features gender-bending disguise, mistaken identity, misdirected letters, and desire that transcends gender. Anthony also stars in the Cyrano role, which is reimagined as Cyrene, a lady’s maid more worldly than the family she serves. Cyrene is secretly in love with Roxane (Andrea Rose Cardoni), the progressive daughter of stuffy Lord Cecil (Brian Scott Campbell) and Lady Dorothea Thurston (Kathryn Wylde). Meanwhile, Roxane unwittingly catches the eye of Antony Granville (Nick Cummings), whose absurd efforts to get close to her fuel the plot and the humor.

Unable to get Roxane’s attention, Antony resorts to impersonating his sister Christine (Eliza Waterman) in a dress shop. Roxane falls for the fake Christine, the real Christine receives Roxane’s letters, Cyrene pens Christine’s replies, and silliness ensues. Cummings and Waterman are delightful as the Fake Christine and Fake Antony, whose laughable disguises manage to fool other characters. Roxane may get hoodwinked, but she rings true as the romantic interest. Cardoni lends the character such energy and passion that it is easy to see why both Antony and Cyrene fall for her. Yet this made the lack of chemistry between the lovebirds more apparent.

Anthony’s stoic and intense Cyrene would pair well with Downton Abbey’s fastidious Mr. Carson, but seems out of place here. Cyrene gives voice to queer desire, as well as the queer ancestors whose existence is too often overlooked or erased. This is important, and Anthony lends the character compelling gravity in these moments. They interrupted and emphasized Queerano’s outlandish humor, though. Elements of the performance I attended were uneven as well. The attractive set had clever features that the cast struggled to operate, and actors stepped on one another’s lines.

A rarely achieved goal

Such flaws are easier to overlook in a tighter show. While Queerano has too much going on for me, it has a lot going for it, from a committed cast and great costumes to all the feels. And the 1921 effort to “protect” British women from lesbianism brings to mind the ideology of the Parental Rights in Education Act (better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill) that passed 101 years later in Florida. In this way, Wolfsmouth Players Company succeeds in creating work that relates to the current political climate, a goal often sought and rarely achieved.