Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – C. Julian Jiménez’s scrappy but buoyant BRUISE & THORN empowers queer youths to envision a fabulously uninhibited world for themselves

• By drediman
• April 1, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, I got the chance to catch up with Pipeline Theatre Company’s production of C. Julian Jiménez’s new play Bruise & Thorn, which is currently playing Off-Broadway at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T/New York Theatres (the well-received world premiere run has been extended through April 3). The scrappy but buoyant play tells the story of two struggling cousins – the titular Bruise (a trans woman) and Thorn (a gay man who dabbles in drag) – as they strive to rise above their mundane day jobs at a laundromat to attain freedom and queer fabulousness.

Thematically, Jiménez’s play – which is heavy on magic realism and throws sassy shade about like a casual game of catch – calls to mind Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over, which enjoyed a run on Broadway earlier in the season. Both feature co-dependent central characters on the fringes that strive to break free of the chains that society has shackled on them. Both sets of characters ultimately break through only with the aid of unbridled fantasy and imagination. Although certainly crowd-pleasing, such flights of fancy elicit disquieting questions. Do they really escape from their grim realities? Was it all just in their heads? Indeed, the plot becomes increasingly fuzzy as the play careens towards its cheerful but surreal conclusion, as if implying that the ending for these characters has yet to be actually written. Nevertheless, with such an unabashedly upbeat ending, the playwright empowers queer youths – whatever their inclinations may be – to envision a fabulously uninhibited world for themselves.

The irrepressible yet somewhat insecure Thorn is played with larger-than-life sass by Jae W.B. It’s a defiant performance that expects nothing less than complete adoration – which she gets from the audience. As her more level-headed and practical counterpart Bruise, Fernando Contreras is grounded and appealing throughout. I have a feeling that both Jiménez and director Jesse Jou are still fine tuning the the play’s tone, especially in the play’s early scenes. However, the fantastical sequences that come later on (complete with drag ball-style duckwalking, death drops, and twirls aplenty, courtesy of choreographer Cesar Valentino) are already spot-on and riotously entertaining.

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BRUISE & THORN
Off-Broadway, Play
Pipeline Theatre Company at A.R.T./New York Theatres
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 3