An Excerpt from a Participant of "Folies Esthere"

(Photo of Candy from Lisa Teiger)

Enjoy! (The full post can be found on his blog)

...What makes The New Shul's Purim celebration unique, though, is that this liberal, family-oriented congregation with lots of children and members of all ages, has chosen to transform the ritual into a challenging experience on many levels, not least of which is its embrace of complete genderfuck. Queen Vashti has, for these three years, been portrayed by my drag queen friend Candy Samples. King Ahasuerus is portrayed by a drag king; and this year in fact every role from Esther to Mordecai to Haman is portrayed by a member of the opposite gender. The cantor singing the sacred text was an evening-gown clad woman.

Candy/Queen Vashti was accompanied by two "Vashti Vixens," fellow drag queens, who sang Candy's new song "Promise of a New Year" and later, after Queen Vashti refused to submit to the King's will to bare herself except for her crown, a medley of Mama Cass's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" with the theme from the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Before Haman is executed, transformed into a GI Joe doll hanging from the balcony by a noose, s/he issues an impassioned warning that s/he, Haman, represents the dark wickedness potential in all of us, something we must constantly guard against and uproot. As the GI Joe doll swings, darkly hilarious and disturbing, the community begins to sing "Once there was a wicked wicked man, and Haman was his name..." Justice wins out and bad people who would scapegoat others for their problems -- in this case the Jews -- are defeated. Powerful stuff....