A Non-Canonical Musical Adventure With Pookamhura: Mistress Of B-Roll

This is a funny, moving musical about finding chosen family through online gaming.

You can read my full review below!

Pookamhura begins with a gamer scene and, just when you think this is going to be a "watch me play video games" marathon, the players emerge and the story evolves. The music is fun, dynamic and expertly-written. The emotional delivery of the songs tore at my heart and helped me connect with the characters on a deep level. I'm not a gamer and it helped me understand how the alternate reality of social video games provide a safer place for people who feel they are not welcome in their IRL (in real life) world. Trans identity is presented with authenticity and in an enlightening, powerful, vulnerable way. To belong, to be welcome, to be seen and accepted for who you truly are is a universal human desire, and Pookamhura captures that beautifully. The show is a window into the life of anyone who is told they should not be who they are, the ugliness of rejection, delivered in song with an entertaining, memorable metaphor that manages to be funny and empowering at the same time. I left more aware and more connected.

The emoji I would choose isn't there... tender... connective...expanding. ... I am not a gamer. I am a cis-gendered geriatric -millennial, but the themes of the this show and especially the emotional rawness of Francis Wallace's performance drew me in and gave me an empathy-building window into an experience I would otherwise have no access to. Thank you to Chris for your music and your story.. and reminding all of us of our Boomer dad's, and to Brian Morton for your passion for theatre and going through the immense abrasion of bring new, important theatre to all of us. Sending all a wheel barrow of broken legs for the rest of the run. If you are a Gen X or Millennial with kids navigating this complex time in our history, see this work.