According to Trisha Lee, "Diversity is hard."
Trisha Lee, a fictional small town Texas widow, comes to that disarmingly simple insight near the end of a life-changing journey in the Elise Forier Edie drama "The Pink Unicorn"—in a powerful SpeakEasy Stage live streaming premiere. Initially, the title refers to the imaginary mythic figure that seems to light up her gender neutral teenage child Jolene's room at night.
Eventually the radiant unicorn will become a metaphor for the transformation that Trisha undergoes from a judgmental though loving mother to a newly understanding one.
As Trisha herself recounts in this one-woman play, she was far from understanding when her child admitted to being "not all girl" but "boy too." When Jo, then starting high school, announced, "I'm gender queer, Ma. I'm pansexual," a kind of Gender 101 became a pre-requisite for parent-child dialogue.
Where Mrs. Lee—nibbling on cookies and drinking tea—previously depended on recipe cards for day-to-day reference, she now turned to Wikipedia and discovered "an infinite variety of gender."
Thanks to Edie's sharp descriptive skills, Trisha's narrative abounds with vivid characters and imagery. Jo has an unusual pet—a tarantula named Beetlejuice, "on her shoulder like an epaulet." There is gay student Elijah Breckenridge—who co-founds the Gay and Straight Alliance (GSA).
There is homophobic and transphobic Pastor Dick, who hatefully compares LGBT Christians to Nazis. Trisha's alcoholic brother Junior terms the ACLU "Satan worshippers." Jo's Southern belle grandmother blames the likes of AOC and believes that her daughter is "consorting with demons."
Also look for Trisha's lesbian friend Enid, who "made herself fat" thinking she would be undesirable to men (Audience members are advised that there are fat-phobic images). Rights rally participants include a tattooed protester named Shug and wheelchair activist Dorcas Alexander, an expert at marshalling supporters.
Most of all, Trisha's odyssey persuasively demonstrates how she has moved from a cluelessness that defined gender as "pink and blue" to a reluctant but ultimately embraced activism that saw her ready to "go through Hell" to support Jo's truth—even to the point of incurring death threats and being treated like a pariah.
That support goes as far as endorsing Jo's decision to wear a blazer—reserved for male students in the school dress code—for her yearbook picture. Eventually Trisha realizes that what she calls 'traditional American values' actually includes the principle of equality for all. Ultimately, she reasons, God has given her a pink unicorn, too—one that puts a premium on love, especially for Jo.
Under the strong direction of Bevin O' Gara, Stacey Fischer gives a riveting performance as Trisha. She captures the dramatic change in this once-confused mother and woman as well as her ever-present feeling and essential humanity. "The Pink Unicorn" brings timely light to the expansive diversity that is LGBTQIA.
Edie's provocative 80-minute play is followed by reactions by local LGBTQIA writers ,leaders and organizers.