Taylor Mac is an award-winning playwright-performer whose works seen on, Off, and Off-Off-Broadway question not only gender norms but also conventional dramatic structure. His bizarre musical entertainment The Hang eschews traditional elements such as story and character to focus on a celebration of queerness in a free-form spectacle which is part party, part philosophical debate, and part funeral rite.
The plot, such as is it, centers on the last hours of the ancient Greek sage Socrates as the hemlock he has consumed takes effect. A bearded and festively costumed Mac as Socrates, looking like the zany comedian Rip Taylor, expounds on sexual non-conformism and virtue for its own sake as a chorus in drag attire cavorts and discusses their mentor’s ideas, and a sober Plato (Ryan Chittaphong) records the master’s dying words on a cardboard typewriter.
Mac’s book and lyrics are more than a bit puzzling and obscure with contemporary references to Senator Mitch McConnell and the dueling Gay Pride Parades (one corporate and one anti-capitalist) sandwiched into the songs. But Matt Ray’s jazzy, driving score, Niegel Smith’s fast-paced, fluid direction, Machine Dazzle’s truly dazzling costumes and colorful, 1960s, hippie-ish set, Kate McGee’s show-biz lighting, and magnificently moving performances from Mac, the versatile cast, and skilled musicians make this Hang an entertaining, but head-scratch-inducing two hours.
