“I think golems are very transgender — they’re beings that are often perceived as monstrous, who have tremendous power and are made by humans through magical means. Not to mention, they’re sexy as hell,” says Aviva Pearl, writer of “Clay Mommy,” a play that explores trans identity and its own unique form of pseudo-motherhood. Pearl, who wrote it, teamed up with her friend Jael Scott, to direct that story to life, where this weekend it debuts at Chez Bushwick, a local studio space operated by the choreographer and dancer Jonah Bokaer.
The cast is all trans-femme, and that’s intentional; the story centers around the trans female experience, especially the ways transwomen step into mothering roles to support each other through difficult transitions, often filling in for the lack of parental support. “We launched a search for the rest of our cast online, and we met with so many wildly talented transsexuals,” the pair tell me in an email. Their online search led to adding Jackson Taitano and Clay Baker-Learner to put together their four-person cast.
The play itself tells the story of Violet, played by Pearl, who leaves behind sex work in New York City and returns to Los Angeles to reconnect with her estranged, Orthodox Jewish mother, played by Jael Scott, after not seeing her for six years. Back in the suburbs, Violet crosses paths with an old family friend, played by Taitano, who has just begun their own journey of transition. Violet persuades them to become her “symbolic daughter,” stepping into a role of attempted guidance and support as they navigate life’s profound changes together.
The idea of a golem, the clay figure brought to life in Jewish legends, comes into the play when Violet turns a sculpture of her grandmother, played by Baker-Lerner, into an agony-ridden creation who teaches her how to become a mother herself. “The golem is a story I grew up hearing a lot and was always fascinated by Jewish mystical sources [like the Kabbalah] dating back 2,000 years [that] teach that through certain spiritual and magical practices people can animate clay creatures, known as golems,” Pearl tells me. “Throughout the millennia, there have been many golem stories and almost all of them end in disaster.”
As I sat in for early rehearsals, I watched a complex, winding tale of queer found family that insists on the point that these relationships can be just as dysfunctional as the ones formed by biological ties. You watch these characters create bonds that mirror the complexities of traditional family dynamics, highlighting the dramatic challenges and imperfections inherent in all forms of kinship.
The theme runs throughout the play, depicting sympathetic characters who continually navigate their mistakes in various forms of parenting and being parented. As Violet begins to try and open her heart back up to her mother, we can feel her heart break as her mother continuously deadnames her and refuses to accept her daughter’s new identity, no matter how much she begs her give her a chance.
The continued rejection and transphobia Violet has to endure while she attempts to forgive her mother underscores a turmoil many queer and trans people are all too familiar with. The play attempts to illustrate the painful realities of living without the acceptance of a world that is supposed to only offer unconditional love.
Although centered around various generations and iterations of mothers and daughters, the play also incorporates some male characters, who are instead brought to life by puppets, created by New York City drag king Sweaty Eddie.
“Aren’t they so grotesque?” Pearl gleefully tells me when she emails me pictures of a blue puppet that looks like someone that could join Statler and Waldorf in their theater box.
Pearl and Scott explain their reasoning for their hand-crafted costars.
“Everyone knows trans women are dolls but it’s kind of fun to flip the script and turn men into objects. Dolls know what it’s like to be threatened by men and we wanted to invoke that shared experience without it actually being frightening, while simultaneously turning the dehumanization we experience back towards the men,” the two of them tell me in an email.
“Plus, we weren’t interested in working with any men.”
Although currently booked for a weekend run from November 8th to the 10th at Chez Bushwick, off the Morgan L stop, they say they have plans to continue running “Clay Mommy” in the city and beyond, and already are fielding offers from theaters in Pittsburgh and Northampton, Massachusetts, notably the setting of another recent play in Bushwick. The pair are excited to be, as they put it, “little trunk rats of the New Age Borscht Belt.”
Catch “Clay Mommy” at Chez Bushwick, located at 304 Boerum Street, from November 8th, 9th and 10th at 8pm. Tickets run for $30, but are sold at half price to anyone trans. Get advance tickets here.
Rehearsal photos taken by Michelle Maier.
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