Jerker

By the time you read this, On marronne? will have just closed. We're writing this article as we await the premiere of this show. Nevertheless, let's take a chance and mention Palucheur, playing from November 24 to December 9 .

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Staged by Robert Chesley in 1986 as Jerker, Eric Plamondon revisits this show in the French language. Heavy in its subject matter, necessary in the story it tells, Palucheur comes to question our relationship to sexuality, the queer community, and the question of care. Chesley's original work correlates directly with the onset of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. The lack of public health policies, care and adequate information to protect oneself from it were to have a particular impact on queer communities, whose access to effective care and a stable economic situation was more difficult.

Michael Kearns, one of the first American artists to come out openly as a gay person, directed Jerker with Robert Chesley. At the time, Kearns described the working world as " working to the end. " The end he refers to is death from HIV-related complications.¹
This is the backdrop to Jerker / Palucheur. In this show, which alternates erotic and emotional scenes, everything is told and played out from beginning to end through telephone conversations. Kearn explains that the title of a show is " perhaps the most important word a playwright composes ". In its literal version, the sexual connotation is obvious, palucheur alluding to a person masturbating. But Kearns suggests looking further: Palucheur also alludes to a " tear-jerker ", i.e. a " tire-larmes ". In other words, this show is as pornographic as it is romantic, as erotic as it is tragic, where the bond between the two characters, however strong, hangs by a thread. This thread testifies to the fragility of this queer relationship as much as its power in the face of mortal danger. Finally, it reminds us, the audience, of one thing: these twenty conversations we follow, provocative and raw though they may be, are above all about love.

Jerker will initially be better known for his controversies in the public debate than for what he tells. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates radio content in the United States, was forced to revise its radio broadcasting policy following a complaint from a fundamentalist. The fundamentalist and his family allegedly " by accident " listened to an excerpt broadcast by KPFK-FM radio. The show, " violent for him and his family ", would have " removed his control over his ability to protect his children from learning certain sexual practices at certain times in their lives. ".² The FCC would qualify this broadcast choice as indecent and possibly obscene, and sanction KPFK-FM.³

This would not prevent Jerker from being considered a masterpiece, and its author a remarkable artist of his time. Mark Thompson, cultural affairs editor and senior writer for the national queer news magazine The Advocate from 1975 to 1994, refers to Robert Chesley as " one of the most important gay playwrights of his time " and sees Jerker as " one of the most important gay plays ever created ".⁴
The show's influence extends far beyond the theatrical sphere. Dean Howell, who played one of Jerker 's two characters in 2006 at the Highway Performance Space and Gallery (Santa Monica, California) sees a radicalism in this work: " When no one else was talking about it, it was through theatre that artists began to tackle the epidemic in the early '80s, and this play was one of the first. It wasn't just a play, but part of a collective finding its voice. ".⁵

Jerker reminds us that art in its practice must be precursory and committed.

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Florent de Vellis

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

¹ BRESLAUER Jan (August 6, 2006). "Drawing more out of 'Jerker'". The Los Angeles Times.
² WITT Lynn, SHERRY Thomas and ERIC Marcus (eds.) (1995). Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America. New York, Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-67237-8.
³ JONES Alex S (June 6, 1987). "F.C.C. Letter Offers Clarification on New Indecency Rules for Radio". The New York Times.
⁴ BRESLAUER Jan (August 6, 2006). "Drawing more out of 'Jerker'". The Los Angeles Times.
⁵ Idem