Mme Caeneus’s Canteen

ANIMA & the Open Ears Festival co-present the world premiere of Mme Caeneus’s Canteen A transy chamber opera set in the queer world of Mme Caeneus’s, a ‘locker club’ in WWII America, where host/ess Lucy (‘Mme Caeneus’) holds space for transformation in the midst of a polarized world. Madame Caeneus’s Canteen! A beggar can become a queen, a queen become a corporal, the corporal can trade his stripes for civvies of a Friday night — … Two intersecting gender transitions unfold against the backdrop of the sexual, gender, and racial politics of the 1940s U.S. — and beyond that, against the backdrop of the bronze-age transition story which a group of soldiers are acting out in their ‘blueprint special’ drag revue. A story of queer solidarity, love, and chosen family, this opera resonates in and for our own time.