The Toronto Theatre Review: Oraculum

By Ross

“Gape it til you make it,” we are told, in a complete social media framing as one tries to sell thrift shop fashion as high-end. It’s a telling setup of what kind of three-handed tarot is being “work, work, work” slayed forward. Created by two of Canada’s premier drag artists, Denim + Pythia, Oraculum ignites the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre with a thunderous and ominous explosion of glamour, glitter, and avant-garde fabulousness. The show, part theatrical experience and part smokey drag show performance art, combines spectacularly well-conceived projected crystal ball visuals with lip-synced extravaganzas played out against a backdrop of spiritualized friendship and deceptive manipulation. It’s a twisted spectacle of feathers and outrageousness, perfect for those who delight in Drag Race and reality television.

Unfortunately for me, I’m not one of those people (please, don’t “cancel” me for being upfront;). I’ve never actually watched an episode of Drag Race from beginning to end, nor do I watch any reality television. It’s just not my framing. And because of these facts, I found myself sitting somewhat outside the loop of what was happening on the stage of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I have never heard of either Denim or Pythia – aka: Emerson Sanderson and Christos Darlasis – the creators of Oraculum, I’m sorry to say, but I must admit their visual embodiment of all that is unique and adventurous about drag is as full and fabulous as the figures they embody.

Their “whatever makes you feel better” involvement in this somewhat flimsy storyline panders deliberately to those devoted fans who surrounded me the night I saw it at Buddies. The humor didn’t really resonate with me, either feeling bland, obvious, mean-spirited, or too inside the Drag Race world for me to connect to. I could almost see the jokes literally flying over my head as everyone around me laughed and cheered for almost everything that transpired on that well-fashioned stage, courtesy of set, projection, and lighting designer Cosette “Ettie” Pin (The Tank’s Sleeper). Bookmarked with framed confessionals, tagged with hashtags and title cards that elicited howls of laughter from this captive audience, the show flings itself forward with confidence, delivering a kind of manic hilarity that hit with this crowd, but unfortunately, bypassed my brain.

This is not a criticism of the show, as it is a show that isn’t exactly for me, nor written for someone like me, and “intentions matter” we are told. Their storytelling, directed with a casual hand by ted witzel (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s Roberto Zucco) from a script by ghostwriter Lauren Gillis, meanders around a contrived setup that involves a media manager by the name of Kayleigh, portrayed big-busted and spiritual by Denim, trying to navigate her quickly approaching nuptials and her jealous, but aspiring influencer Matt, played by Pythia. Their banter is functional but stilted, forced and sometimes disturbing in its emotional outrageousness and high-maintenance neediness. Everyone is trying to do their best, but as already stated, I am not the target audience. And that is made clear as all those around me were in it and loving every piece and parcel of it.

The friendship, in my humble psychotherapist mindset, is fraught and one-sided in its self-absorbed and cruel manipulation, with Pythia’s Matt being quite the horrid friend to Kayleigh who worries about Matt. Still, when Pythia secretly dones the occult disguise as Madame P, giving a tarot card reading to the oblivious Kayleigh who is desperately looking for spiritual guidance, the stage lights up and embraces all that is available to them. Visually it’s a treat, much like those costume changes and outrageous looks, designed by Pythia and Jaime Lujan, worn by these two as they flip into lip-sync drag show numbers that become the most fun part of the evening. I’m not sure how both the costume changes and the musical numbers fit in this storyline framing, but who cares, really. It’s all for the fun and fabulousness of the moment,

Oraculum, a Buddies in Bad Times and Denim + Pythia co-production, that runs from December 1 to 14. For more information and tickets, click here.