Review: SCANDALOUS CONDUCT: A FAIRY EXTRAVAGANZA at The Great Friends Meeting House

The Brown IGNITE Series unveiled "Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza", a multi-channel musical documentary this past weekend, about a little-known but gut-wrenching piece of Rhode Island history known as the Newport Sex Scandal of 1919. 

On April 19, 1919, the Navy began arresting sailors as part of the Navy's sting operation to strike at the heart of the area's queer subculture known for cocaine use and gay sex.  In May, the Navy put on an elaborate production of R.A. Barnet and A.B. Sloan's "The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk: A Fairy Extravaganza" in hopes of trapping even more gay sailors.  By the time the plot was discovered, dozens of sailors had been arrested.

This 65-minute performance includes three screens with movement-based visuals inspired by archival photographs of the Newport Naval Station during that era as well as narrated reports written by the undercover operators from the surveillance sting operation as well as new musical arrangements from the Navy's 1919 reproduction of "The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk: A Fairy Extravaganza".

Providence-based artists Jason Tranchida and Matthew Lawrence happened on the 1919 story exactly one hundred years later in 2019 and couldn't get the idea out of their minds. "We found that the more we dug into this, the crazier it got," said Jason, who curates the queer art magazine Headmaster with Matthew. "It was all kind of shocking and not so shocking but it was clear early on that the Navy never thought this plan through, taking these men and throwing them in jail for three months with very little to go on.  It's issues we are still dealing with today."

Jason said the 1919 Scandal was one of the first ever in the military and a part of the local history few know about.

Matthew said the pair had secured a number of grants to dig deeper into the history which afforded them visits to the Naval War College and other locations that had rare archival information on the scandal.  "We got more and more entrenched in this the deeper we got," Matthew said. "These people who were getting arrested, they weren't doing illegal things: they weren't monsters. We hope that this queer-US History will allow attendees to consider some weighty topics like homophobia and surveillance which remain as relevant today as it was in 1919."

This production isn't a play.  It's an immersive three-screen performance that may not be for everyone.  If you like plays like Grease or Ragtime, this isn't like that.  It's part history, part musical, part narration that comes across in an very artsy way.  They throw in parts of the recreated "Beanstalk" production interspersed with naval sailor scenes and narration from the original transcripts.  If anything, it will get you that much closer to a piece of history you likely never heard about that took place right in all of our backyard, a Naval black eye that transcends more than 100 years later.

The Performance runs until October 6, Thursdays to Sundays 12-4 p.m. at the Great Friends Meeting House, 21 Farewell Street. For tickets, click the button below. The production is FREE of charge.

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