Imagine an urban fairy tale with an East-Asian twang… now add animated, horny and homoerotic characters to the mix. This is the equation of The Unspeakable Act (23 Elephants and the Vortex Theater Company), an independently produced one-act play that pushes the lines of sexual humor in a fantasy saga of epic proportions.

So the story goes, the empress (Yoko Hyun) of the fictional kingdom has gone mad. Her husband, the emperor (Steven Lasher), is an in-the-closet homosexual who will not have sex with his wife, and the audience soon learns that this is what drives her to insanity. A magical Buddhist monk played by a hilariously vivacious tiny Asian man (Yuki Yakote), is summoned to help the empress, but falls prey to her beauty. The emperor catches the monk watching his wife bathe and banishes the monk from the kingdom.

The monk asks the Buddhas to turn him into a demon who could love the empress in every way, and his wish is soon granted. He returns to the stage as a 250 pound red demon with an 18 inch black dildo hanging from his loin cloth. The demon and empress then consummate in an erotic display of humorous interpretative dance. Meanwhile, the emperor is exploring his homosexual side with his servant boy (Dan Guarino). The servant boy is loyal to his emperor in every way, but he also has an S&M relationship with the empress’ lady in waiting (Lorraine Mattox). The tension and drama is truly wonderful.

With a cleverly lyrical narrator (Vanessa Evans), some off kilter sexual humor, and lots of cheesy music to accompany the players, The Unspeakable Act is full of moments where you’re mumbling to yourself, “Oh man, I can’t believe they went there.” It’s outrageous, intelligent, and incredibly funny. The actors have great chemistry, and they often find themselves face to face, or groin to groin, or groin to ass. It makes for unusually explicit circumstances, but it’s so dirty you have to watch every second. The playwriting and directing is a small piece of independent theatrical genius.

This play’s history dates back to 2001 when it was just an improvised idea for the NYC Fringe Festival.

Bidalia E. Albanese-Hess

“We went into rehearsal with no script and wrote the show during rehearsal based on improv games we played with the cast,” said director Bidalia Hess Albanese, who attributed much of the writing to Josh Truett and her husband Steven.

Steven Hess

“Josh hammered out the first draft, then changes and cuts were made,” said Bidalia. “Subsequent versions of the script were created by Steven and myself. The show is different each time it’s been performed.”

While Josh, Bidalia, and her husband Steven were all heavily involved in the creation of the play, the cast members also played a role.

“The show is really a group effort,” she said. “Each cast has had a lot of input and changed a lot of the material with us.”

This show is a work in progress. Every time it’s produced it seems to change. Hopes for the future include dropping the Styx and Cure songs to include original music. Bidalia also expressed interest among the many involved in doing other similar projects. She mentioned a few ideas floating around “alternative casting” in Shakespearean plays like King Lear or Romeo and Juliet.

It may be a difficult decision, whether or not to continue with the Unspeakable Act or focus on something new, especially with the promise of this particular play. It certainly has the potential of something in vein of the cult-classic, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Nevertheless, the 23 Elephants managed to put together a classic indie-theater experience with plenty of laughs. I genuinely look forward to seeing future projects by this group, and you can visit them at www.23elephants.org.