Drag, Disco, and the Donkey

HowlRound Theatre Commons: September 2019 was the ten-year anniversary—and the last glittery curtain call—of The Donkey Show, which ran every weekend at American Repertory Theater’s OBERON stage in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was placed in a Studio 54–esque immersive club environment, infused with a disco-pop score, and, cut down to a barebones ninety-minute spectacle, had become a long-time staple for Harvard undergrads, bachelorette parties, and tourists looking for a fun night on the town.