Drag, puppetry and politics meet in ‘Project 2069’

Goldenrod Country Inn, a B&B and tavern in Worthington, will host its original production “Project 2069: A Dragged-Out Political Satire” on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m in its Cabaret Room Theater. The drag/puppet show takes aim at Project 2025, a conservative guidebook for overhauling many aspects of federal U.S. government policy.

Goldenrod Country Inn, a B&B and tavern in Worthington, will host its original production “Project 2069: A Dragged-Out Political Satire” on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m in its Cabaret Room Theater. The drag/puppet show takes aim at Project 2025, a conservative guidebook for overhauling many aspects of federal U.S. government policy. CONTRIBUTED/ERIC FRARY

By CAROLYN BROWN

Staff Writer

Published: 10-30-2024 2:09 PM

What if Project 2025 were a puppet/drag show?

Goldenrod Country Inn, a B&B and tavern in Worthington, will host its original production “Project 2069: A Dragged-Out Political Satire” on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m in its Cabaret Room Theater.

The two-hour, adults-only show is about a drag queen, Bella Frociaggine, who accidentally becomes president of the United States. Once she takes power, Frociaggine and members of her presidential cabinet — two puppets — finally put the “gay agenda” into action. (You may recognize Frociaggine’s last name, which is an anti-gay slur in Italian, from reports that Pope Francis used the word this summer.)

The show’s name and plot are direct references to Project 2025, the 900-plus-page guidebook by the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to overhaul many aspects of federal U.S. government policy. Its numerous proposals include removing the White House’s Gender Policy Council, preventing public schools from discussing “gender ideology” (which it says “should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country”) and barring trans soldiers from serving in the U.S. military.

The aim of the show, wrote Goldenrod Country Inn co-owner Eric Frary in an email, is to “show off the absurdity of anti-LGBTQ fear-mongering and to poke fun at those who — like the authors of Project 2025 — would trample democracy to advance their own agenda.” Drag and puppetry help to make this point because both art forms are “over the top.”

Despite the fact that it obviously targets Project 2025, the show is, according to a news release, “otherwise politically balanced.” To that end, they criticize “political buyouts, wars waged for profit or at the behest of industry, government interference in free choice and government interference in the media,” Frary wrote.

“Both major parties are culpable for these actions in different forms. There is substantial common ground that anyone who generally believes in democracy can get behind and, more importantly, laugh at. Of course, the meme-able moments from the election cycle and debates will of course make their appearances, but the broader commentary is aisle-crossing.”

Given the legal challenges that drag itself has faced in recent years, Frary said that performing a drag/puppet show like “Project 2069” feels even more defiant than performing a typical drag show because it has a specific target. (Even so, he wrote, “Drag and queer art are always inherently political.”)

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“We are taking a direct stance against a major regressive political movement,” he said. “Theater and comedy have always been on the front lines of these battles.”

To get tickets, visit project2069.eventbrite.com. General admission tickets for one person are, naturally, $20.69.