THEATER REVIEW | 'A LIFE IN THREE ACTS'
Of Youth, Frocks and Politics: A Not-So-Ordinary Life
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Published: March 8, 2010
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/theater/reviews/08life.html (http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/theater/reviews/08life.html)
Now for some history plainly personified. As its contribution to New York's informal celebration of gay culture, St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn offers an international perspective on a half-century of gay experience courtesy of Bette Bourne, a drag performer and activist from Britain who recounts his experience at the footlights and on the front lines in "A Life in Three Acts," which opened Sunday night.
In this warm, intimate and engaging evening Mr. Bourne sits down for a cozy chat with the playwright Mark Ravenhill to recall his upbringing in working-class Hackney, his years as a steady wage-earning actor in London and regional rep, his discovery of the liberating joys of frocks and furbelows, his immersion in a politically active drag commune, and his fertile, happy years as a performer with the theater ensemble Bloolips.
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A Life in Three Acts
Reviewed By: Dan Bacalzo · Mar 8, 2010 · New York
http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/03-2010/a-life-in-three-acts_25445.html (http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/03-2010/a-life-in-three-acts_25445.html)
At 70 years old, Bette Bourne is filled with a vitality that positively radiates from the stage in the autobiographical two-hander, A Life in Three Acts, now at St. Ann's Warehouse. Written and performed with playwright Mark Ravenhill, this utterly charming show details the British drag icon's life and work, and serves as an informative and entertaining history of some of the changes and developments that have affected gay culture in the last 50 or so years.