We check out The Book of Mary with Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. at The MATCH. DirtDogsTheatre MATCHouston
Charismatic and compelling, Hooper proves she knows how to work a room and hold an audience’s attention rapt. You’d expect no less from someone who’s spent nearly half a century on stage. She slips easily from Mary as story teller to a host of characters – a young, timid Mary and a friend’s inquisitive mother; both of her parents and her Paw Paw; the gay men that became her mentors and even Anita Bryant and LBJ Community Hospital’s very own Nurse Ratched.
Though left to recount stories and, at most, play off of herself in scenes, the show is most emotionally effective when it visits Hooper’s relationship with her parents, and later her boss and mentor Steve O’Cain. It’s at its most relevant when she talks about regular raids on gay bars, the Ku Klux Klan protesting at the Gay Pride Parade, and especially the criminalization of drag. And it’s at its most resonant as a tale of finding your voice and a sense of comfort in her own skin.
Tim Thomson, responsible for sound and video designs, did a lot of the heavy lifting for the production, with an assist from lighting designer Ian Evans. From still images, stock footage and the pages that flip during the transition from chapter to chapter, to the use of music – tunes like “The Girl Can’t Help It,” “Crocodile Rock” and “Heart of Glass” – to keep us abreast of the timeline, Thomson ensures the flow of the show. The set, designed by Mark A.
Still, Hooper can spin a yarn – and seems like she’d have enough material to crochet the world’s largest blanket – while exemplifying a sense of self that makes you listen. All in all, it makesa more than worthy way to spend an evening or afternoon. There’s also never a bad time to relive Anita Bryant taking a pie to the face – especially when it’s channeled through a Houston legend.
Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and April 3, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays through April 9 at The MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism.
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