BY LARRY RUDIGER Resident Alien Written and directed by ‘Tim Fountain Starring Bette Boume Flynn Center for the Performing Arts ' September 26-28. on’t miss any of your three D chances to see Resident Alien, presented by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in its intimate basement-level theatre, FlynnSpoace in Burlington, September 26-28. This award-win- ning play, written and directed by Tim Fountain, stars the noted British actor and drag performer Bette Boume as Quentin Crisp, the self- described “stately homo of England.” Crisp, by his own account, was “reluctantly born on Christmas Day, 1908,” and then named Dennis Pratt. He died at age 91 in 1998, ironically enough in Manchester, England (despite his having fled to the more welcoming Manhattan years before) just as Resident Alien premiered. He may be unfamiliar to OITM readers, or only slightly known as a minor celebrity. In his youth, the first stirrings of the modern gay-liberation move- ment demarfded assimilation (today we’d call it “straight acting, straight appearing”). Crisp, however, devel- oped an unflinchingly effeminate manner. He defiantly pranced through super-conventional pre-war London with lavender-dyed hair, a jaunty hat, and girly, silk shirts. His attire and manner made him a walk- ing advertisement (he was a prosti- tute) and a target for bullies and toughs. Others have suggested _,. j-':¢'= Crisp’s persona was a sort of bridge between the 19th century dandy. (think Oscar Wilde, a comparison Crisp disliked) and 20th century pansexual street theater,'with a bit of W.C. Fields (“The trouble with chil- dren is that they’re not retumable.”) thrown in for good measure. Crisp failed to find success as an illustrator or, at least early on, as a writer. He eventually became an art- school model, and referred to that career in the title of his breakout autobiography The Naked Civil Servant (“An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing”). It became a celebrated TV movie and solidified his late-life career as a writer and performer (you may recall him as Queen Elizabeth in the gender-bend- ing movie, Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf ’s novel, and starring . lesbian icon Tilda Swinton). He spent most of his last years living in appalling filth (he disliked house- _.work) on New York’s Lower East Side at a time when that part of town was still dangerous and unfashionable. His out-there appearance marked the first of several contrad- an choices that would put Crisp at odds with the gay-lib crowd. He would go on to admire Margaret Thatcher; insult Princess Di (sug- gesting that her unhappy marriage should have been predictable to one born to be Lady Di); denigrate Matthew Boume’s arty, all—male Swan Lake; and otherwise defy con- ventional wisdom to remain on the political movement’s fringe. But he is duly remembered for his dry wit (“Euphemisms are unpleas- ant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.”) and unique style, quali- ties that make him a particularly apt subject for a single-actor play. Resident Alien finds Crisp in his .' messy apartment (“After the first four years the dust doesn’t get any worse. It’s just a question of not los- ing your nerve."), awaiting word from “new friends” who will take him to lunch in exchange for the pleasure of his company (his phone number was published, and he con- sidered, it his duty to chat up any-‘ body who cared to meet him). Actor Bette Boume, who _ befriended Crisp, has enjoyed acclaim in both mainstream and queer venues. The result is a play that has enjoyed considerable worldwide success. London’s Financial Times concluded “Boume is superb: funny, touching, unsentimental, sometimes even pro- found,” while Time Out called it “A tour de force performance.” Scotland’s The Herald raved that “Boume brings his own particular majesty to this audience with a per- formance signally free of camp and bitchiness but loaded with wit, irony and humanity. One cult meets anoth- er: the result is a treat all around.” Playwright and director Tim Fountain collaborated with Crisp in his final years, working from inter- views and personal papers to which he had unrestricted access. In an email interview, Fountain summed up his own work: “It is not a biopic; it is not a trawl through the facts of somebody’s life. It is more an evening with a Shakespearean clown who speaks the truth and was V whipped for his pains. Writing the play made me love and loathe my country more: love it that it could create, and has always created, one- offs like Quentin; loathe it for it's rejection of him.” Critics have noted that it's not just the treasure trove of well turned phrases and unflinching observa- tions that distinguish Resident Alien. The New York Times’ notoriously hard-to-please Ben Brantley admired the play as “genuine theater,” and “most satisfying at its most physical, _ when words, gestures and environ- ment ricochet off one another.” In depicting Crisp near the time of his death, when he’d already been par- tially paralyzed by a stroke and, despite his fame, still lived at the edge . of poverty, the play shows a who ll may have perfected the withering remark, but was also completely serene, comfortable in his own skin, and open to life’s possibilities. V lorry Rudiger‘-is"a social psycholo,-= V gist and theatre-goer who lives in Burlington.