I went to see The Silicone Diaries at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre yesterday. It’s an extraordinary show in every sense of the word. It played to sell-out audiences last year, and so Buddies in Bad Times has brought it back before it goes on tour. It runs here to December 12,
Nina Arsenault has been described as Canada’s foremost transsexual. The Silicone Diaries is her story; how she went from an awkward man to a blonde bombshell, and just kept on going. Famous for sixty plastic surgeries costing over $200,000, financed by adventures in the sex trade, she’s quick to point out that not all of those surgeries were related to gender reassignment. The bulk of the procedures had more to do with the universal yearning for beauty. That search for ultimate beauty is essentially the theme of the show.
She’s an artist, and her body of work is her body.
Nina is also a gifted story-teller. She’s alone on the stage except for a stool, a side-table and a bottle of water. She is mesmerizing. Part monologue, part performance piece, this show holds your attention for all of its one hour and forty-five minutes. Production values are first rate. The lighting is atmospheric and edgy throughout. So is the inventive soundscape by Richard Feren which adds much to the spoken word, as do video projections, which I should add at times are not for the squeamish.
Nina’s search for beauty – ultimate beauty – is a provocative topic. I heard smooth-talking hipster Jian Ghomeshi ask her on CBC Radio a few days ago if she had gone too far. She’s feisty, particularly on this one. No, she said, I’m just trying to be special, like Pamela Anderson is special. (Curiously, Jian replied that he would like to be like Pamela Anderson too.)
You can hear that interview here btw. Click on the November 30 broadcast.
In any event, the pursuit of beauty gives Nina a big story to tell. How she tells it is a true tour de force, full of stellar moments. Early on she talks about her hours on end doing “she-male” porn, jerking off before a webcam. She parlayed her 60-words a minute typing skills in to the ability to keep eight assorted chats going on at once, and she made a lot of money. It’s a funny story. (Read her Fab magazine account of her career in porn here.)
The tale of her silicone injections, not just in her breasts and face but in her thighs and buttocks, is funny too. She’s in Mexico at this point, where black-market silicone injections are cheap. Afterwards, she’s told that the silicone needs to set, so she must lie on her stomach for twenty-four hours. She must pee standing up, or the impression of a toilet seat will be displayed on her buttocks for ever.
Later in her story, she tells of meeting “the biggest dicked rocker in the world”, Tommy Lee, he of the Pamela Anderson sex tapes fame, in LA. The story of how she was picked out of a crowd of big-haired female beauties to kneel before him, and his reaction when he was told “she’s a man” is priceless.
The show – in all its funny, sad, scary and uplifting glory – is brilliantly directed by Brendan Healy.
My rating? I won’t argue with the multitude of critics who’ve given The Silicone Diaries their highest rating. Four thumbs up out of four from me too, Nina.
And Nina, you’re beautiful.