“Turn your cell phones off before the show or walk the plank.”
That’s the warning projected on a screen as “Swimming With Lesbians”—the latest solo show written, directed and performed by San Francisco’s sublime gift to the comedy world, Marga Gomez—begins.
It’s a mild precursor to the hilarity that ensues.
This time around, Gomez is not exploring the absurdities of her own life—her relationship with her charismatic Latinx parents, the vicissitudes of her bumpy love life and more—as she’s done in the past with such wonderfully comic autobiographical pieces as “Latin Standards,” “Not Getting Any Younger” and “The Spanking Machine,” to name a few.
Instead, decked out (ahem) in a captain’s hat, striped shirt, shorts and knee socks, she invents a lesbian cruise ship, the Celesbian, helmed by super-butch, monosyllabic Captain Debbie, complete with a squint, a smirk and a swagger.
It’s been clearly demonstrated in her previous solo plays that Gomez is a gifted actor, but “Swimming” gives her a chance to show off all her skills to their best and most hilarious advantage: her myriad voices and accents and her transformative body language along with her usual impeccable timing and her sly wit.
The adventures aboard the Celesbian—many of them taking place on the Lezzo deck—are narrated by the flighty, bespectacled Isabelle in a vague and inconsistent transatlantic accent due to “foreign accent syndrome,” as she apologetically explains. The cruise is, of course, on its way to the Isle of Lesbos, and Isabelle is all in, ready for her first lesbian “affair.”
Aboard are a host of characters, including the eager-to-please “singles coordinator” Prue Perez, anxiously covering up personal secrets; the woo-woo onboard astrologer; a former boarding-school bully (the scary Arlene); and a few others. Each flawed and eccentric character has her own path to follow aboard the chaotic Celesbian as libidos run amok.
About midway through the 65-minute show, I was laughing too hard to take any more notes. The show has played in the area and elsewhere during the past year and a half and is heading for New York soon. Whether or not you’ve ever seen Marga Gomez onstage, and no matter your age, gender or sexual persuasion, if you feel like laughing until you’re gasping for breath, “Swimming With Lesbians” is a must-see.
“Swimming With Lesbians” continues at 5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays through Jan. 28 at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley; tickets are $25-$100 at (415) 282-3055 or
themarsh.org.