1943-1987
55 MORTON ST.
BOMB MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW WITH DON SHEWEY
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF RIDICULOUS!
MUSEUM OF WAX, A SHORT FILM BY CHARLES LUDLAM WITH EVERETT QUINTON
Charles Ludlam grew up in Queens, New York, just a few subway stops from Greenwich Village, and the heart of Gay America. At twenty-four, he founded the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, where he wrote, directed and performed in almost every production for the next two decades, often with Everett Quinton, his life partner and muse, by his side. Renowned for drag, high comedy, melodrama, satire, precise literary references, gender politics, sexual frolic, and a multitude of acting styles, the Ridiculous Theater guaranteed a kind of biting humor that could both sting and tickle. His many plays included Turds in Hell, Der Ring Gott Farblonjet, a riff on Wagner's Ring Cycle, Bluebeard, and The Mystery of Irma Vep, his most popular play, and a performer's tour-de-force. Ludlam continued working until almost the day he died of PCP pneumonia, just three months after his AIDS diagnosis. He was 44.
"Most gay theater either apologizes or pleads for mercy. What I do is not gay theater — it's something much worse. I don't ask to be tolerated. I don't mind being intolerable." - Charles Ludlam
"Most gay theater either apologizes or pleads for mercy. What I do is not gay theater — it's something much worse. I don't ask to be tolerated. I don't mind being intolerable." - Charles Ludlam