An Evening-Length Extravagance

Next to living a life of luxury, there’s nothing quite like taking in a show that skewers and celebrates all the opulent superfluities that our world holds dear. Luxury Items is courtesy of Monique Jenkinson, the local performance artist and dancer who spent an important period of aesthetic development romping around where the wild queens were (Trannyshack) as her alter ego Fauxnique, eventually becoming the first biological ladything to take home the crown at the annual 'Shack pageant. Jenkinson has gone on to stimulate the gay brain even further with a couple of captivating, campy, and cerebral one-woman shows. (Earlier this year she saw great success with Faux Real, which sold out quickly and demanded an extended engagement.) Her latest is a lynx-eyed look at the luxe we live by, and promises so much more than gilded finery: handbag puppets engage in a crucial dialogue concerning their pedigrees; ye olde alter ego Fauxnique turns up to help Marie Antoinette and Coco Chanel explain themselves; and Jenkinson vogues and dances to the ever-so-fancy harpsichord music of J.S. Bach in a piece inspired by perfume advertisements. Also featured is a plea for the dying newspaper (from the lips of a hoarder) and a humorous, scholarly examination of Oscar Wilde’s essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.” Waggery, erudition, and effervescent embellishment? That’ll do, Mary. That’ll do.
Nov. 7-8, 8 p.m., 2009