How do you give a funny show from the 1970s an extra dose of humor? Director D'Arcy Drollinger has the answer. With a combination of drag, hilarious actors and witty dialogue, "Three's Company" makes a larger-than-life comeback for fans, while still welcoming newcomers to the show. Drollinger discussed the latest sitcom live parody, and Heklina comments as well.
Bas: In 'Three's Company', a man pretends to be gay in order to get a room. That doesn't sound too far off from reality in San Francisco?
D'Arcy: (Laughs ) Now it's the opposite: someone would be pretending to be gay in order to get a room. We live in different times now.
Is that a criticism on the current housing situation?
This show is from the '70s, when it was still considered taboo to have men and women live together. We are doing this show because we all loved it and because the show is so cartoonish that it lends itself for drag and a show. But once you get into it, yes: It covers a lot of funny stuff about the housing market and stereotypes. This is comedy that comes from looking at stuff through a microscope. You enlarge everything, which makes it more funny, even poignant at times.
Will the audience need to know the sitcom in order to enjoy the show?
Knowing the characters and the shows, people will have some fun with it. But this show stands on its own as a comedy and a farce. I think that you'll have a good time even if you don't know the show, because the jokes are there. We took two of the scripts but we satirize it and make up other parts that are in the same vein of the show but add some more comedy to it. This show was already such a slapstick, but we take it up another notch.
What made you decide to include drag in this story, or to choose this story for drag? I bet it will look very different from the '70s show.
This show lends itself for drag because of the larger-than-life characters. It's pretty much what we do here at Oasis. It's not all across the board: the person playing Jack is a biological boy and we have a woman playing a woman in one scene. But for the most part, we do cross genders. It makes us able to play with things sexually in ways that you couldn't necessarily if the genders weren't crossed. You can play around with things differently. We recently did Star Trek with all women playing the men; it brings a certain level of comedy in and of itself.
How do you use drag in a humorous way while still displaying drag culture respectfully?
Drag culture, I feel, is multiple things. We display drag culture but also theatre culture. What we do displays more of the original drag culture, I think. This harkens back to Shakespeare. This kind of theatre is having a bit of a renaissance in San Francisco right now. We do 9 to 10 shows a year. There's a drag show on Dante's Inferno and a Golden Girls Christmas show which is becoming a big yearly event. There's a lot of drag theatre happening right now, especially in San Francisco.
What do you hope people will be most surprised and excited about?
I think they'll be surprised about how close we've done regarding the looks of the characters, the wigs and the costumes. The set feels like you're in the TV show. They'll enjoy the level of comedy, where the actors are all at the same level in terms of being strong comic chops. It's great to be in a cast where everyone could steal the show because everyone is that funny.
Heklina, performing in the play, explains Three's Company in a nutshell:
The show was so stupid, it really should not have worked, but somehow it did. It makes me laugh whenever I watch it. It's pure camp. Of course we've made it even campier, and make fun of the ridiculous misogyny and homophobia that was so omnipresent back then. People didn't even know they were guilty of it.
"Three's Company Live" at Oasis Feb. 25 - March 19. (Thurs. Fri. Sat. at 7:00pm), starring D'Arcy Drollinger, Heklina, Adam Roy and Laurie Bushman, with Matthew Martin & Sara Moore as the Ropers. $25 general admission - $225 VIP tables. Two-drink minimum. 21 & over. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com