Gay superheroes are really hot right now. The SF Chronicle profiles Prince Gomolvilas, whose new play, The Fabulous Adventures of Captain Queer, takes no prisoners in that area.
In Gomolvilas’ play, Captain Queer must contend with Reginald Screamingbottom, the leader of an ex-gay ministry, and Screamingbottom’s sidekicks, Dr. Octopussy and Nazi war criminal Gustav Lederhosen.
Gomolvilas won’t give up all the play’s secrets, however, particularly the ones surrounding his hero’s special powers: “You just have to mull over, what kind of powers could a radioactive ladybug pass on to somebody?”
Gomolvilas recently adapted Scott Heim’s Mysterious Skin for the stage. The Captain Queer play evolved from a suggestion he got from New Conservatory Theatre Center‘s artistic director Ed Decker. With Superman Returns on the summer docket, the idea couldn’t be more prescient:
“Gomolvilas thinks the idea of a secret identity also takes on a particular resonance in the gay community, in which so many people have at one time or another felt they had to hide their sexual identity from the world at large. But he also says he hasn’t put too much effort into analyzing his comic book habit as a gay Thai American kid growing up in Indiana and Southern California. ‘I think it was mostly me escaping from reality more than anything else, as a kid who was very closeted and repressed,’ he says. ‘Maybe subconsciously a lot of the secret identity stuff? I don’t know.'”
Queer Hero [sf chronicle]
