Don’t dream it, be it — That is the message that one student group is trying to spread in its upcoming performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Featuring a mad scientist, wacky Transylvanians and filled with sexual innuendos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a cult classic for over 40 years. However, Forbidden Fruit, a student group that performs as a shadow cast of the show throughout the year, aims to emphasize the original message of the stage play and create an inclusive, safe environment of empowerment of identity that the film fails to address.
According to Charlotte Mallon, who will play the character of Riff Raff, the film adaptation has distorted the message of the original stage play. Richard O’Brien, the writer of the stage play, does not completely identify as either a man or a woman and wrote the play to encourage others to feel comfortable with themselves. However, the film adaptation lacked this message.
“[The original play] encourages self-exploration and fitting into your own space rather than the social space that you’re assigned. The film is a terrible distortion of this story built by a trans person,” Mallon said.
Courbin Couraud, co-vice president of Forbidden Fruit, says that the group’s focus on the reclamation of hateful words and the original message of the play sets them apart from other casts. The group uses words that are often used in derogatory ways as a form of empowerment for those who are targeted with these words, and they use callbacks to rewrite the script to better fit the message of the original stage play.
“We use the space as somewhere we can say things that have been used to hurt us, and hurt other people, and reclaim them so they aren’t so hateful,” Couraud said.
Mallon adds that the group uses the hurtful words and spins them in a way so that the words become a form of empowerment.
“We’ll use words that are generally used in a misogynistic ways, slut-shaming ways and/or homophobic ways, but we’ll put them in our own voices to reclaim the things that have been yelled at us on the street,” Mallon said.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show has provided an inclusive place for people of all backgrounds and identities that has contributed to its long-lasting popularity. Rian Pygin, who will play Dr. Frank N. Furter and is co-vice president of Forbidden Fruit, never imagined being capable of portraying the iconic, central character. As a reserved, nervous person, the eccentricity and safe environment of the show has allowed Pygin to become more open and comfortable on stage.
“I am able to go up there and become a completely different person, and all that I am expected to be is ridiculous, over the top, and sexy,” Pygin said.
Forbidden Fruit will be performing at the Bijou Art Cinemas on Oct. 30 and 31 at 11 p.m.
Correction: A previous version of this story misgendered Rian Pygin.