Drama Club

The Hills (of Georgia) are Alive With Transgender Love in Southern Comfort

Kate Davis’ 2001 documentary Southern Comfort, a fave at Sundance, tells the story of Robert Eads, a female-to-male trans man dying of ovarian cancer. Over the course of the last year of his life Eads meets—and falls in love—with Lola, a MTF transsexual.

Now their story comes to the stage with Collaborative Art Project 21‘s off-Broadway adaptation of Southern Comfort, officially opening tonight and running through October 29.

Written by  Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis and directed by Thomas Caruso, it’s a musical recounting the same heart-wrenching story as Davis’ film, but incorporating the bluegrass and folk-music traditions that are central to the culture of rural Georgia, where Lola (Urinetown‘s Jeff McCarthy) and Robert (Smallville‘s Annette O’Toole) reside.

Adapting Robert and Lola’s story into a musical is an interesting choice, but CAP 21 has proven to be a great incubator for exciting new musical works, including 2008’s The Trouble with Doug (inspired by Kafka’s Metamorphosis) and 2006’s Womb With a View (which explores a lesbian’s journey through the process of artificial insemination).

We’re definitely anxious to how smoothly this Southern Comfort goes down.

 

Image via Matthew Murphy

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