'Loudly and proudly queer': Students perform Rocky Horror to kickstart Halloweekend

On Friday and Saturday night, a performer dressed in a black corset stepped onto the Varsity Theatre’s stage; then another, and another. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the 1975 musical horror film, started playing on a projection and Dr. Frank-N-Furter — the film’s main character — began mouthing Richard O’Brien’s “Science Fiction/Double Feature,” her lips a bright, bloody red.

As several performers appeared, audience members might have wondered whether these performers were poking fun at the movie playing or were somehow in on the joke.

A performer sashayed to the corner of the stage and grabbed a chair. Dragged it to the center and turning it, toward the audience, a large red mouth was revealed. The performer squatted over the chair, black heels glinting under the Varsity Theatre’s bright stage lights.

“At the late night, double feature, picture show,” the ensemble members mouthed, prompting cheers from the audience.

The annual production of Rocky Horror has been a cult Halloween classic in Chapel Hill since 1978. Now a tradition by UNC student theatre group, Pauper Players, students performed on Friday and Saturday dressed in a lingerie and fishnet stockings, dancing and shouting across the stage in an entertaining frenzy.

Mouthing and miming "Rocky Horror" is part of a musical tradition that started in 1973, when David Bowie’s ex-wife allegedly shouted, “No, don’t do it!” during a scene with Riff-Raff and Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Audiences and actors alike have been shouting at the show, or the film after it was released in 1975, ever since.

The 1975 film follows fiancés Janet Weiss and Brad Majors, who get stuck during a storm one evening due to a flat tire — the same evening Brad proposes to Janet. Desperate, they find "the light": the manor of mad scientist and transgender woman, Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

“There’s a light,” Janet sings in the original movie, her mime — portrayed by UNC students Jessica Cotton and Anushka Saroha — mouthing along. Ensemble members yelled at the audience to turn on the lights, before shouting again to turn them off. This happened more than once causing audience members to hurriedly put their phones away and laugh.

This year’s production maintained the energy of years past but with more choreography, Meredith Alt, a sophomore psychology major and ensemble member, said.

“In the movie, it's just the lips,” she said. “But in our production, we have five ensemble members doing choreography that I love.”

While leads perform in two separate casts, ensemble members performed all four shows, responsible for the bulk of the dancing as well as spoken or shouted lines.

The storyline of the original movie is extremely odd, Alt said. The point of the mimed production is not necessarily to replicate the movie itself but rather, it's the students’ performances, and the way they engage with the movie.

Marleigh Pearson, first-year theatre major who portrayed Brad, said that while the student production is a lot of fun, actors put a lot of time into getting their characters just right. Pearson, for instance, had to learn how to behave like a man, altering her posture to do so while being a cisgender woman who has exclusively played female roles in the past.

As a family tradition, Pearson has been watching Rocky Horror for 15 years. She said that the film symbolizes mainstream queer culture in ways that were surprising at the time, considering the film’s content. Dr. Frank-N-Furter not only is a transgender woman, but the show features queer identities such as characters Riff Raff and Magenta hailing from the planet Transexual.

“It's been this piece that let queer culture be mainstream since the 70s, which is, and unfortunately, still something we struggle to do today,” she said. “So, I love that something that's so loudly and proudly queer, not just sexually, but also just queer, like a British person say, this is a super weird show.”

Kayala Purdie, a senior biology major and ensemble member, said that the UNC student production is a distinct part of campus tradition, and she was thrilled to be able to participate in theater without having done so in the past.

“I think it's something that brings so many people together — people like me that aren't into theater, but then get to do it, people that get to see their friends or just go have a nice time during Halloweekend,” she said. “It's just something that unifies the campus all around Halloween. I love it. It's a rite of passage. Everyone gets to experience it. It's so slay fun.”

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