VillageVoice.com – by Alexis Soloski
Taylor Mac seeks his dead dad in old letters to the ladies
Onstage, the writer and drag artist Taylor Mac has appeared as a sea creature, a forest sprite, an American flag, a comic book, bubble wrap, and once?in a children’s theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar?as a prepubescent Son of God. (He can produce photos in which he’s being whipped by five-year-old centurions? which may explain a lot.) In his new solo show, The Young Ladies Of, which begins performances at Here Arts Center on September 26, Mac will play several thousand Australian women and another son?himself.
While stationed in Vietnam in 1968, Mac’s father, Second Lt. Robert Mac Bowyer, placed an ad in Australia’s Daily Telegraph, seeking correspondence with a “young lady, 19?26, with R and R in mind (I’ll be coming to Sydney for leave soon).” He mentioned his enthusiasm for surfing, his distaste for “gutless men,” and closed with a smiley face. He received countless letters. While cleaning out the garage three years ago, Mac’s mother came across several bags of them. Mac’s father had died in a drunken motorcycle accident shortly before his son’s fourth birthday, and Mac maintains tremendous curiosity about him. He began to read the letters eagerly, skimming at least a thousand.