How many Fringe shows start with the delicate pitter-patter of urine hitting the toilet? Probably a few, now I think of it. But I’d wager most of them aren’t quite as good as Tessa Parr’s I Am Johnny at Summerhall.
I Am Johnny is a drag king show which humorously pastiches performances of toxic masculinity. This isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but then again Parr’s previous acting credits include Hamlet, and loads of people have played him. It’s really about what fresh perspective is being brought to the character.
In this case, Parr’s protagonist Johnny has all the classic traits of the caricatured toxic male: the painted-on abs, the random hip gyrations and the inexplicable insistence on being shirtless. But Parr brings an almost well-meaning touch to Johnny. Near the beginning, he approaches random female audience members and hands out mints. Very thoughtful, but he can’t help mansplaining how to eat them.
Johnny has recently discovered the spoken-word poetry scene. He’s a keen performer. He’s also awful at everything that he insists on making the audience sit through: random beatboxing, lifting a plastic chair one-handed and painfully slow breakdancing. But it’s the poetry which is the most painful. Long, asinine epics with mispronunciations to force the rhymes (example: “John” with “digestion”). Nevertheless, every time he finishes, the audience cheers and claps.
Parr manages to keep a straight face through all this, which is astonishing. During one digression about thrush, I had to put my pen down mid-note because I was laughing so much. But Parr doesn’t crack once, responding to the laughter with expressions of mild perturbance and confusion. They’re not only a drag performer, they’re also a bona fide clown.
However, a real stand-out moment for I Am Johnny comes almost at the very end, during a sequence where Johnny describes a disturbing and bizarre interaction with his mother. Parr begins to morph into Johnny’s mother, not through any kind of costume change, but literally just using their voice and facial expressions. It’s genuinely a bit mind-boggling watching their features morph from masculine-presenting to feminine and back again. The sequence is really creepy, but it’s a stand-out moment and really indicative of Parr’s capabilities.
I Am Johnny is a genuinely interesting and hilarious production and offers a unique spin on the performance of toxic masculinity.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
