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When The Bearded Ladies Cabaret started conceiving of a cabaret that’s based on plants, the members knew they wanted to perform it in an actual garden. And who does charming pop-up gardens in Philadelphia better than the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS)? So when PHS gave the Beards the green light, they went full steam ahead with a concept partly inspired by Michael Pollan, a science writer based out of Berkeley, Calif. who’s been writing about the secret lives of plants since 1991.
Sally Ollove, of the 200 block of Christian Street, is the Beards’ associate artistic director and she’s helming the production of “Bitter Homes and Gardens: A Botanical Hoedown” set to put down roots for a few weeks at PHS’s pop-ups at 9th and Wharton and then at 15th and South streets. Ollove may have already read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” (2006) or “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World” (’01), but in ’13, Pollan published an essay in the New Yorker titled “The Intelligent Plant” that really got her thinking.
It inspired her especially because “the debate [isn’t] really over whether plants have senses and what that experience is but how do we define intelligence?” Sitting in the cool room of their rehearsal space in North Philly, she explained cerebro-centrism, or “that humans can only recognize intelligence that looks like their own. Because plants don’t have brains the way that humans think of brains, some would say that negates the idea that they’re intelligent.”
And “Bitter Gardens” was born, which turned into the show’s ultimate question – “If plants could speak, what would they sing? We are a cabaret company,” Ollove added for emphasis.
What they’ve conceived is a hilarious, thoughtful and provocative hour-long cabaret full of characters, song, dance and characteristic silliness. Their mission says “they fuse cabaret and theater to tackle the politics of gender, identity and artistic vision with sparkle and wit.” Only four years old, they’ve been making work with impressive ambition, and momentum’s on their side this year. They’re the resident cabaret company at The Wilma Theater and, in the middle of “Bitter Homes” between runs at each garden, they’ll take an intermission to perform their now-annual performance at Eastern State Penitentiary on Bastille Day celebrating Edith Piaf (as performed by Bearded Ladies’ artistic director John Jarboe). Also, two years in the works now, they’ll debut a much-anticipated Andy Warhol opera collaboration with Opera Philadelphia in September.
Jarboe and Mary Tuomanen are credited as the writing team, but the work has been created in collaboration with the cabaret’s company members.
“PHS is very happy to host performances by The Bearded Ladies in the Pop Up Gardens. The gardens are the perfect setting for their summer cabaret, and we can’t wait to experience their production created just for our audiences,” PHS interim executive director Margaret McCarvill said.
The Beards have prepped a cabaret that’s whip-smart and asks very important questions, namely, how do humans think they can manipulate and outsmart Mother Nature? The show’s brilliantly emceed by a precocious ear of corn portrayed by lauded local actress Tuomanen. A press release says “This botanical spectacle will feature flowers, ferns, weeds, and vegetables singing, and dancing their way through the big questions that face our plant bretheren. Led by Jebediah Eatin-Good, a friendly ear of corn, this bio-diverse cabaret will feature a range of music from Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits to RaeLynn, the Andrews Sisters and Faith Hill, as well as original songs by resident composer Heath Allen, all played by a three-person band made up of accordion, fiddle/banjo, and sousaphone.”
Jebediah Eatin-Good’s the “CEO of a Monsanto-like corporation called Eatin-Good, and Jeb is bringing his message of genetic modification through song and dance,” Ollove explained. “And he’s playing on nostalgia, or the corporate appropriation of nostalgia, and he’s brought the GMOs played by U Arts students: Mrs. Potato Heads, One-Ton Tomato, and Glow Onion or Glonion.” That’s right, Jeb’s also brought his friends the Hash Sisters, Mary and Jane. Observers will also find a local chapter of the Green Scouts, and a group of plants who’ve been kept out of the garden: a dandelion weed played by Kate Raines, Jarboe as a fern named Fern and a sassafrass tree. Of course Faith Hill, Eatin-Good’s headliner for a night of genetic experimentation jubilation, will make a cameo.
There’s definitely a strain of the production that emphasizes the ways in which humans stomp all over naturalism. At Tuesday’s rehearsal, Tuomanen’s Eatin-Good says “I can grow in all kinds of weather” and asked a castmate to “spray this pesticide right in my mouth, go ’head! Mmm, I love it.” They play on a Joni Mitchell classic, “Big Yellow Taxi,” with Jeb saying “you can pave paradise, put up a parking lot, and put a paradise on top – stack em’ up! Who says the city and countryside are at war?” The GMOs sing a refrain of “mmmm pop up pop up.”
The music is steeped in country and folk for a reason.
“Country music is rooted in agriculture, at least in the imagination of America, that and also I was interested in country songs about wants and needs. A plant needs sun, a plant needs water,” Ollove said.
She also noted “if humans died, plants would survive” and at rehearsal, an actor sang “Civilizations they come and go / Sooner or later they’ll crumble and fall / We’re just here in the middle of it all.” There’s a little us versus them in “Bitter Homes,” but Ollove says it could be better conceived as a play on power and control.
There’ll be plenty of “HYAH!”s, a riff on Sons of the Pioneers’ “Drifting Along In The Tumbling Tumbleweed,” and of course a rodeo-inspired “Hoedown” sendup. And though the Beards have built a stage that’s mobile, that doesn’t mean they’ll spend the whole night on it.
“We’re the Bearded Ladies so plenty will unfold around the garden and audience,” Ollove said. And “some of the menu items [at the Pop Up] will get called out in the show, and we have a fake PHS acronym,” but insists on keeping it a secret.
The hoedowns begin at 9th and Wharton with previews July 1 and an opening July 2. They’ll run in Passyunk Square until July 10 and relocate to South Street for a July 14-19 run. Admission is pay-what-you-can, but a suggested donation of $15 to $20 is encouraged.
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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