Ever wonder what happens in bathrooms when you’re not looking? York sexuality studies Professor Sheila Cavanagh, author of the book Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination, wrote a play about the secret sex life of bathrooms. Queer Bathroom Monologues promises you will never look at the toilet in the same way after witnessing the tragic and passionate reenactments of life in the water-closet.

Right: Sheila Cavanagh

The Queer Bathroom Monologues by Libido Productions, which Cavanagh founded last year, is a verbatim play about the secret sex life of the bathroom, in particular LGBTQ experiences in Toronto’s public facilities.

The monologues will take place as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, starting tonight at 10:30pm at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Ave., Toronto. Tickets cost $10 at the door or $11 in advance through the Toronto Fringe Festival box office or by calling 416-966-1062.

Performances of the play, directed by Megan Watson and featuring Hallie Burt, Tyson James and Chy Ryan Spain, will run on Saturday, July 9 at 7:30pm, Monday, July 11 at 3pm, Tuesday, July 12 at 8:30pm, Wednesday, July 13 at 2pm, Thursday, July 14 at 10:30pm and Sunday, July 17 at 4:30pm.

Based on interviews completed for her book (see YFile, Jan. 12) the personal monologues also illuminate the history of the gendered rooms. In the tradition of The Vagina Monologues and The Laramie Projects, Queer Bathroom Monologues uses interpersonal narrative to bring the social life of the bathroom to the stage.

The play features multi-dialogue and solo performances to capture a range of gendered and sexualized experiences in the toilet. They include never-before-told stories that span from the devastating to the sublime, the traumatic to the passionate, the mundane to the curious, the comic and everything in between.

For more information, visit the Toronto Fringe Festival website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.