Trinity Student Directs Powerful Performance of "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom"

The two vampire lesbians, La Condesa (left), and Madeleine Astarte (right),
played by Aria Gaston-Panthaki and Sophia Elsadig respectively, casting a spell.
(Photo by Kathryn Gore)

By Sophie Dwyer

Trinity Theatre brought the off-Broadway show Vampire Lesbians of Sodom to campus over the weekend, directed by Trinity junior Sarah Bastos, a Theatre major.

The show focuses on the never-ending lives of two lesbian vampires who continue to meet at different points through time, and how their relationship evolves. While the show contains plenty of comedy, the core meaning lies in the emotion of characters spending eternity as marginalized individuals.

Originally written by American playwright and actor Charles Busch in 1984 with a $36 budget and first performed in a bar, the show’s spirit spoke to Bastos. She said she chose to direct this piece because she “figured that this would be a really fun, really campy, really interesting play to direct.”

The production value of the play mattered less to Bastos than the subject matter. “Being a queer woman myself, any show that has lesbians in it is like: amazing, incredible,” Bastos said.

With this play, Bastos intended to provide representation of “lesbians that are fully fleshed out in the main characters,” which in her view rarely occurs in theater. The play portrayed the sexuality through several scenes in which the protagonists kiss and flirt with each other and other females.

Bastos made some changes to the original play to reflect social progression since the 1980s, in terms of race, gender, and stereotypes.Working with Benjamin Stevens, visiting assistant professor of classical studies, Bastos edited sections of the original script to avoid negative stereotypes. 

Towards the end of the show, one of the vampire lesbians, Madeleine Astarte, casts a spell at the other lead, La Condesa. For this scene, Bastos opted for Latin instead of inappropriately stereotyping speech from a witch doctor in the middle of Africa.

Besides displaying open gayness, the vampires also represent empowered women through their banding together to combat misogyny and other issues. Like many other theater productions at Trinity University, the show demonstrates art as a platform for social change.

Audience members reacted positively to the romance between female characters. “It was sexual and had little plot but it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it,” said junior Catherine Phillips. Others, such as junior Ari Bearman, said the play was very different from anything they had seen before. “I liked how they broke out of the traditional expectations for what a play is,” Bearman said.

The cast members appreciated the uninhibited attitude of the show and the freedom of expression. “Sarah gave us a lot of freedom, in the jokes we wanted to do, or how we wanted to deliver our jokes, so it was a really good time,” said sophomore Sophia Elsadig, who played the lead role Madeleine Astarte. “And I also got to kiss two beautiful ladies, so that was an extra-good time,” she laughed.