Suck My Treyf Gender

by Sara Marcus

The Jewish holiday of Purim is traditionally a time for dressing in costume and celebrating the execution of an evil politician on the same gallows he had intended for the Persian Jews. In honor of that long-ago reversal, partiers are encouraged to drink until they confuse the story's righteous hero with its wicked villain. Or was that the wicked hero and the righteous villain?

In that same boundary-smashing, topsy-turvy spirit comes "Suck My Treyf Gender: A Queer, Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Occupation Purim Cabaret." (Treyf, for the uninitiated, is Yiddish for not kosher.) This perverse night of gender trouble, music and spoken word will be MCed by the New York-based Hadassah Ladies for Homos, a trio of Jewish drag queens following in the unholy footsteps of street-theater pioneers Church Ladies for Choice. Other performances will include a queer retelling of the Purim story, songs by New York drag queen Yolanda and a knock-down, drag-out wrestling match between kosher and treyf.

"On Purim, we celebrate stopping our idiot rulers from making decisions that create genocidal situations," explains cabaret co-organizer Emily Nepon, who was crowned Mr. Drag King Philadelphia back in 1999 for an inspired portrayal of a heavy metal-loving bar mitzvah boy. With that in mind, the cabaret organizers are donating the proceeds to Jewish and queer activist organizations working for Palestinian rights and against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Or was that for Israeli rights and against the Palestinian occupation? Happy Purim.

Suck My Treyf Gender: A Queer, Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Occupation Purim Cabaret, Sat., March 15, performance, 8 p.m.; dance party, 10 p.m.-midnight; $7-$15 for both, all ages, The Parlor, 1170 S. Broad St., benhesherman@hotmail.com.