Spy in the House of men

by Penny. For Your Thoughts. Rochester, NY

Review by Bryan VanCampen

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Penny Sterling’s one-transgender woman show Spy in the House of Men made me realize that my attitudes about LGBT are cavalier, to say the least. My thoughts are usually that it’s not a big deal to me, so let people live as they wish. I live in a college town, I grew up in the theater and had TG people on the crew for my TV show Take Two. But Sterling’s 50-minute solo piece at Lifelong changed my thinking.

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Imagine knowing that you are transgender before the term even existed. Sterling’s honest look at her own family dysfunction, and her attempts to kill that dysfunction so that she can live in peace with herself and her children, makes for a compact evening’s entertainment that’s as funny as it is enlightening. 

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The scene breaks are clearly marked with musical interludes and chapter headings seen on a flat screen TV; the headings would be more effective projected larger. She is such an assured performer that when a few patrons walked in halfway through, Sterling personalized them, welcomed them, and then segued back into a difficult emotional passage. This is one of those unrepeatable moments that remind me why I love live theater.