BABY
And She Leaned Over The Lip Of The Tub
And She Reached Her Hand Into The Water
And Cupped My Thing In Her Hand
I Remember She Cupped It
And She Said
This Aint No Weapon
Yr Daddy Aint Figured That Out Yet
He Might Never Figure That Out
But Im Telling You
This Aint No Weapon
You Hear Me, She Said
And I Think I Nodded
Cause
I Knew To Do That Much At Least
And She Said
No Matter How Big It Gets
It Aint No Weapon
AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS
4W, 2M, 3 Gender Neutral
House mother Hecuba has dedicated her life to protecting her children and the chosen family they all cling to for comfort and support. But when a mysterious plague begins to rip through their community, they are forced to engage with a society that doesn’t understand or even value their existence…
Productions
Antipodes Theatre Company, Melbourne, Australia, 2022: dir. Margot Tanjutco
World Premiere, The Movement Theatre Company, New York City, 2017: dir. David Mendizábal
Readings/Workshops
Workshop, Antipodes Theatre Company, Melbourne, Australia, 2020: dir. Jennifer Sarah Dean
Workshop, Drama League Next Stage Residency, 2016: dir. David Mendizábal
Workshop, 20% Theatre Company, Q-STAGE: New Works Series Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, 2015: dir. David Mendizábal
Reading, PRELUDE, 2014: dir. David Mendizábal
Workshop, Drama League Rough Draft, 2014: dir. David Mendizábal
Awards
*AUDELCO "VIV" Nominations for Best Choreography (Kia LaBeija) and Best Lighting Design (Brian Tovar), 2017
Press
“Inspired…Ancient tragedy minted new. The golden age of queer Ball subculture collides with ancient Greek tragedy in this powerful work”
--Cameron Woodhead, The Age
“Irresistibly fun…it would be a shame to miss. This daring exploration of the bonds of chosen family is a fierce ‘screw you’ to those that hope to monopolize definitions of family, motherhood and womanhood.”
--Greta Doell, Theatre Travels
“Bold and audacious…an exceptional cast doing incredible work. Antipodes is dedicated to producing diverse, eclectic theatre of a high quality and they’re one of the few companies that are actually delivering on that with aplomb.”
--Darby Turnbull, Theatre People
“Elaborate, fierce and sassy. I was obsessed with the cast...one of the most eclectic, entertaining and must-see shows at Midsumma this year.”
--Ross Battaglia, Milk Bar Mag
“It’s a good idea, adapting Euripides’ play The Trojan Women through the lens of the NYC ball culture that famously featured in the cult documentary Paris is Burning. Setting it at a time when the horror of the AIDS crisis was just beginning to dawn on the communities who were about to be decimated by it, US playwright Harrison David Rivers draws a compelling line from the innocent blood shed at Troy to the ‘tainted’ blood of young gay men in Regan-era America, facing their own tsunami of death.”
--Tim Byrne, Time Out
“This daring exploration of the abuse of queer bodies of colour and the bonds of chosen family is a fierce ‘screw you’ to those that hope to monopolize definitions of family, motherhood and womanhood.”
--Greta Doell, theatretravels
“Greek tragedy meets Harlem ball scene. Fantastic!”
--RuPaul
"RuPaul's Drag Race vibes in this modern version of an epic Greek tragedy. Brave, fierce, and 'a theatrical slap'...a wake-up call on so many levels!"
--yesbroadway
"Stunningly poetic..."
--Jed Ryan, The Huffington Post
"A powerful piece of theater... audacious... it cracks the lid wide open on beautiful beings that are all too often overlooked in a normative—and all too often staid—society that favors conformity over individual style"
--Ryan Leeds, thebroadwayblog.com
"The play beautifully complicates the essential trauma of kinship, love, and belonging... Rivers and the talented cast use chorus, repetition, and performance to their highest level of impact."
--Julia Berick, The Paris Review
"Rivers gives implicit respect to his characters — poor, queer New Yorkers of color – by placing them in a classic tragedy that for 2,500 years has been populated by gods and goddesses, kings and queens."
--Jonathan Mandell, NewYorkTheater.me
“You know you’re a theater geek when you don’t really read the program before watching the show and then suddenly realize, “Oh, wait a minute, this is a drag version of Euripides’ Greek tragedy The Trojan Women” – and this revelation makes you fall in love with the play almost immediately…”
--Matthew Everett, Twin Cities Daily Planet
“… Harrison David Rivers’ adaptation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, was scintillating, thought-provoking and penetrating (no pun intended). Paired with David Mendizábal’s directorial prowess, the piece was a welcomed re-imagining of a story that—let’s be real—was in desperate need of a makeover. Or, to borrow verbiage from ‘drag’ and ‘ball culture’ —foundational spaces in the world of Rivers’ play—The Trojan Women needed to have its ‘face beaten’.”
--Korde Tuttle, CULTUREBOT