An awful lot of Shakespeare’s tragic female characters meet horrible endings, often self-inflicted. If only they had a sassy gay friend to talk some sense to them.

Chicago’s Second City comedy troupe re-imagines the tragedies, this time with a gayer, happier ending, thanks to the fabulous Brian Gallivan as The Sassy Gay Friend. Directed by Joshua Funk, the short films, which can be viewed on YouTube, of a little more than a minute play out scenes where the females classically meet their impending doom. Lady in distress is about to meet her end, but fear not – the hair-sprayed Gallivan offers a comforting but snarky diatribe, talking the Ophelias of the world out of a bad decision and into self-preservation.

And in today’s more cynical world, his advice makes sense. Juliet wants to kill herself over a man she hasn’t even known for a week? Uh, uh girlfriend, step away from that smoldering pitfall. Ophelia is about to drown herself because Hamlet rejects her, after he brusquely kills her father Polonius no less. But Ophelia, your hair’s amazing, don’t mess it up! Hamlet’s a loser anyway.

In one skit, the gay friend barges in on a somber Desdemona, awaiting her fate in her matrimonial bed chamber – death at the hands of the walking, raging testosterone Othello. Silly, “stupid bitch.” So Cassio picks up your handkerchief, it doesn’t you have your fingerprints all over it.

Elizabethan women needed a little nerve to stand up to the oppressive, male-dominated social structure they had to live through. And what better than a knight in black cashmere sweater accented by his salmon-colored scarf?

Sassy Gay Friend: Hamlet



Contact this reporter: martin.syjuco@thepantheronline.com