Dykeopolis
(The Gayness: Love and Hate in America)
Gender, sex, sexuality… Are we inventing something new or has it all been done before? How does misogyny influence homophobia and transphobia? Kimberly Dark offers funny, scandalous, true and titillating tales about the roots of our gendered desires, fears and anger. This performance takes the audience on a journey across time and cultures to explore the themes that feel closest to home. Dark’s shows have twice been on Curve magazine’s top ten lesbian theatre performances of the year – come see why.
Reviews
Kimberly Dark is a fantastic storyteller, a skill she wields with quiet power in Dykeopolis. Part educational conversation, part compelling performance art, the show tackles issues of gender, sexuality and societal expectations, with Dark using her own experiences to guide the audience through a meditation on the invasive nature of sexism and homophobia. Pure entertainment this show is not—it’s often more an artistic education workshop than a theatrical performance. But time spent listening to Dark speak is well worth it, and her eloquent and moving delivery makes the hour of the show fly by, even while you grapple with some heavy subject matter and big ideas.”
– The Vue, Edmonton, Alberta
"Dark presents a series of warm and touching tales — often funny, sometimes painful — about love, gender roles, language, cultural differences and sexism. The San Diego native is a master storyteller, breathing life into memories about her first girl crush, her first lover, and trying to hide her sexuality from a cop who might not be so tolerant.”
– Edmonton Review
"[Dykeopolis] radicalizes an awakening within the audience... Dark is cheeky, sexy and a complete riot. She addresses really serious social issues but without aggressive angry activism."
– idigyourgirlfriend
"She is a relaxed and powerful speaker, connecting effectively with the audience and owning the stage with just a chair and a hardbound journal. Her richly intimate stories provided provocative and compelling examples of the ways that gender and sexuality interconnect and that homophobia arises out of misogyny. And her presentation was skilfully designed to reach people with a wide range of experience and comfort level with the subject matter, for example clarifying her definition of the word “queer”. But as soon as the audience felt comfortable, she jolted them out of that ease and then laughed, “You thought I was going to be a nice lesbian, didn’t you?” The narrative flows smoothly from story to concept to the next story, from the tangible intensity of a first teenage attraction to finding a balance between protecting a partner’s safety and protecting her pride in an encounter with a macho Mexican cop."
– Ephemeral Pleasures
| idigyourgirlfriend Review |
| Ephemeral Pleasures Review |