Sunday, August 04, 2013

Southern Comfort: The Musical

Yesterday I went with a friend up to Pittsfield Massachusetts in the Berkshires to watch a musical, Southern Comfort at the Barrington Stage Company. Those of you who are not familiar with the documentary Southern Comfort, the documentary is about a trans-man, Robert Eads who is dying of ovarian cancer. That in itself is not what the movie is about; it is about the lack of treatment from healthcare providers in the Atlanta Georgia area.

In 1996 he was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and over two dozen doctors in the Atlanta area refused to treat him. By the time he finally did get medical treatment his cancer had metastasized and he died in 1999 at the age of 53.

The musical was about Eads life and friends; the musical won the 2011 GLAAD award and 2012 Jonathan Larson Award. The stage set is like backwoods house with a cover porch where the band plays and being a small company the band members also have parts in the play. The small theater gives an intimate atmosphere to the play. You are not up in the second balcony where the actors look like specks on a stage but are only feet away from the actors where they create a human touch to the play. I enjoyed the play and in the end I needed tissues even though I knew how it was going to end.

Here is a trailer for the musical (The quality of the sound isn’t that good but you get to see the start of the play.)…

Here is the video from the CAP21 performance (The sound is studio quality, the introductions end around 1:30 into the video)…
“This video features footage from the Jonathan Larson Grant Awards presented by the American Theatre Wing, and also images from the CAP21 production.”


And for those of you who have never seen the documentary “Southern Comfort” here is the full length video, so grab yourself some popcorn and sit down in your easy chair and watch the documentary…

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