Poly Queer Love Ballad: flesh vs mind, music vs poetry, and is queer sex with strap-ons a parody of straight sex?
21 Nov 2019

by Drew Rowsome - Production photos by Emily Cooper

Vancouver's film and television industry churns out Hallmark Christmas movies at an alarming rate. Fortunately Vancouver's theatre scene has sent us a rom-com that is wittier and just a little bit raunchy without any of the suffocating décor. Gabbie is heading out to "get laid" but she meets Nina and gets more than either of them anticipated. Of course a rom-com (and musical theatre and, to a certain extent, poetry) requires an impediment to true love. Poly Queer Love Ballad has two barriers to the true romance and destiny.

Gabbie is a rake of a lusty lesbian with a heart of gold, used to having her way with the ladies but also seeking a true love that will last forever. Nina is a self-defined, self-conscious "polyamorous bisexual" who loves to explore kinks but defines relationships in transactional/contractual terms as a way of protecting her heart. A Dionysian (on the surface) meeting an analytical Apollonian. The sex is great, sparks are struck, but conflict ensues. 

The further complication is that their modes of expression are not only defined by their nature but also refined by their art. Gabbie is a singer/songwriter with her heart on her sleeve. Nina, a poet, uses words to attempt to explain and nullify her emotions. Gabbie explains herself and expresses her love with songs that grow into howls of pain or joy. Nina has a wonderful speech trying to explain how words place her love into frozen scribbles trapped on paper. Conflict ensues.

As the two feint and fuck, there is much comedy and many great lines. I jotted down dozens but will resist ruining the fun of the performers getting their laughs. Poly Queer Love Story is, unlike most rom-coms, achingly real and very well-written. The comic touch is emphasized by being specific, there is a special delight in hearing two lesbians, or a lesbian and a bisexual, talk frankly and unabashedly about sex and sexual acts. Queer desire is so often coded on stage, rare on film and non-existent according to Hallmark, that Poly Queer Love Story is refreshing. But also universal. I doubt there is any relationship of any combination of orientations that hasn't had to negotiate and compromise.

Sara Vickruck plays Gabbie with a confident baby dyke swagger that hooks the audience from her first guitar strumming entrance. She is also a charismatic performer with a vibrato that can be used to denote the vulnerability that lurks beneath the pompadoured charm. Anais West as Nina has a much tougher role. Nina is angsty and, well, she is a poet. And she speaks in couplets in contrast with Gabbie's more lyrical approach. At first it is off-putting but the two characters rub off on each other and Nina, the polisher of words, has many of the more memorable lines and certainly the ones that are epigrammatic and stick in one's brain. West also delivers one erotic poem recitation that is riveting and raises the temperature in the room.

Gabbie's back story is minimal and exists mostly to insert a biblical quote. Nina, she is a tortured poet, has a lot of back story that is minimally sketched and makes her more fragile and less sympathetic than perhaps necessary. The imbalance in motivation is made up for by the genuine affection between Vickruck and West even though all the sexual heat happens off stage. Some of the transitions are awkward, it is a small stage, and the dialogue, musical numbers and even the poetry flow so smoothly and seductively, that it is disorienting when there are broken moments. 

A rom-com isn't required to be deep, in fact that can be another impediment, but Poly Queer Love Ballad does delve into issues of the heart and the ways that our sexual rules and preconceptions can get in the way of our hearts. And in the way of getting laid in a meaningful manner. The arguments are very carefully presented in a balanced manner, allowing us to root for both protagonists and to be constantly off-balance. And if their solution is not as cathartic, helpful or climactic as an audience might like, it is realistic. And somewhat mitigated by the ability to meld the flesh vs mind split between music and poetry with the aid of an accordion and a kazoo.