David Gaines staged their one person show, Gabardine, at Fishtown’s Icebox Project Space February 14-16. Billed as a “experimental poetry show exploring Black joy, shame, and grief,” Gaines masterfully blended poetic performance, digitally mediated live projection, and immersive sound in ways rarely seen.
Gabardine’s set was a technical marvel. In an otherwise empty space, our attention is drawn to a commanding enclosed structure on stage. At first, it’s hard to process: raw 2×6 wall studs, bottom and top plates, a single door. Dozens of Amazon delivery boxes and outward-facing digital screens scaffold the walls, obscuring nearly every viewpoint into the room. From my seat in the sold-out audience, I, like everyone else, crane my neck and squirm for a better look in. Sightlines shift from seat to seat, and with those around me, we slowly piece together the room’s interior: a lamp, desk, rug, rivers of tangled electrical cords, cameras, computer, chair, and bed.
We are not just looking – we have been prying, surveilling, spying into the bedroom of David Gaines.
Gaines, and the creative team supporting this production, centered the bedroom – more specifically the Black bedroom – as a creative and political site from which to speak. Throughout the performance, Gaines shows us that their bedroom is a vulnerable and volatile place. The bedroom, we witness in Gabardine, is a storied site of joy, sexual exploration, creativity, online community building, technological ingenuity, pain, and healing.
Coming off a sold-out three run showing, Gaines shares with me in an interview that they wanted to “obliterate the fourth wall and bring the audience into my artistic process because so much of my creation and writing happens in my bedroom.”
The poetic performance of Gaines was remarkable as they journey through a triptych of acts: self-destruction, self-preservation, and self-care. Throughout the hour, Gaines poetically explores sexual exploration, substance use, anti-Black racism and prejudice, and community building while oscillating between pain, humor, and kind invitational gestures toward the audience. “So much of Gabardine,” David tells me, “is an attempt for me to reach through time and communicate with my inner child.” Resounding snaps of affirmation regularly punctuate Gaines’ performance as audience members bear witness to Gaines’ poetry while reflecting on their own experiences.
The driving spirit fueling Gabardine has been community. Gaines shares that “real connection is baked into the heart of Gabardine and I wanted to create a show that brought together Philadelphia’s segregated art communities – poets, actors, film producers – so that these different communities could connect for the first time.”
‘Gabardine’ was produced and presented by Painted Bride. Gaines was joined by a creative team composed of Brooke O’Hara (Director/Set Designer), Miranda Watkins (Stage Manager), Jacob Weinberg (Video Technician), Kat Nzingha (Tech Assistant), Olivia Spencer (Tech Assistant), Itohan Edoloyi (Lighting Designer), Tim Belknap (Technical Director/Master Electrician), Elizah Turner (Creative Producer), Queen-Nzinga (Hair/Makeup).
About the Author
Evan Mitchell Schares is a Philadelphia-based director and educator with a PhD in Performance Studies from Louisiana State University. He teaches and directs at Villanova University and his creative work is rooted in experimental black box theatre. He regularly writes on Philadelphia performance art, experimental theatre, and community-based art.
