BBC (Big Black Cockroach)

“Strolling in a verdant grove, Tiresias saw two serpents coupling. When he smacked them with a stick, they separated and slithered away. At that moment he was transformed from a man into a woman for the next seven years.” —From Book 3 of Ovid’s Metamorphōses, 1st century ACE

“One morning, Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams to find that he had been transformed into a monstrous vermin.” —First sentence of Franz Kafka’s Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis), 1915

BBC (Big Black Cockroach) is an experimental theater work inspired by Kafka, classical European mythology, American comic books and current events. In this nightmarish satire, a right-wing American white woman awakens to find herself in an unfamiliar place and transformed into a Black man. BBC mixes a disorienting cocktail of historical and contemporary traumas and future visions in its depiction of imperiled Blackness in America.

Cogent direction and innovative design elements—including projections and a spatialized sound design built entirely from recordings of Outlaw’s voice and movements and echoing the expanding identities within the protagonist—support an unflinching script and an identity-warping performance that combines elements of silent film acting, audio drama, naturalism, Theater of the Absurd, stand-up comedy and poetry slam.

Outlaw’s dissociative shifts between male Blackness and female whiteness are a variation on the loss of identity experienced by Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis as he succumbs to an existence as a cockroach. However, the creature at the center of BBC (Big Black Cockroach) is not “a monstrous vermin,” but rather an imprisoned human being in distress.

The production’s indelible central image—a Black male body in stark isolation—becomes the vessel for America’s violent past, present, and future.

“Outlaw’s performance is captivating and heavy-hitting, pulling the audience into a rollercoaster of self-reflection whether they are ready for it or not.”
- Steven Vargas, LA Dance Chronicle full review

REDCAT PROGRAM NOTES

Full video documentation and pitch deck available on request.

An early sketch of BBC was a highlight of the 16th annual NOW (New Original Works Festival) at REDCAT in August 2019. BBC: BigBlackOctoberSurprise, a special virtual presentation in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, combined live-streamed and pre-recorded performances by Outlaw and was the first work of its kind on the REDCAT stage.

“This challenging work impacted me the most of all the works in the [New Original Works] festival this year. Paul Outlaw’s boldness blew me away as he inhabited the character of a white, wealthy, conservative woman who wakes up to find herself trapped in a black man’s body … The power of BBC’s exploration of xenophobia, black virility, and gender confusion left me speechless and stunned.”
- Bianca Collins, Artillery Magazine full review

“Paul Outlaw is a powerful actor and performer who has written a gut-wrenching one-man drama that was as raw to watch as it is to listen to Billie Holiday sing ‘Strange Fruit.’ Beautifully directed by Sara Lyons and enhanced by the severely stark and aggressive lighting by Chu-hsuan Chang, Outlaw confronts and exposes both white and black stereotypes, fears of ‘the other’ and common racist statements made by people who think of themselves as non-racist or bigoted…The subjects Outlaw investigates are sadly not new, but very old and past the time this country to have an open discussion about, but it is the way Outlaw presents these subjects, the directness of his theatrical tools, and, again, the rawness and undecorated honesty with which he turns the mirror around for us to see ourselves. I hope that Outlaw continues to perform this work and that I am there to see it mature even further.”
- Jeff Slayton, LA Dance Chronicle

“The power of this work is a see-for-yourself kind of experience. Paul Outlaw will challenge you and leave you stunned.”
- Amber Adams, Broadway World - Los Angeles