Detour Productions Will Host World Premiere of POMPEII
This immersive theater experience will take place on July 31 - August 17, 2025, at 7:30pm.
By: Stephi Wild Feb. 10, 2025
Detour Productions has announced the world premiere of POMPEII, a bold new performance blending dance, drag, and theatrical spectacle. Conceived and directed by Detour Co-Founder Eric Garcia, in collaboration with Contributing Directors Kat Gorospe Cole and Chuck Wilt, and a cast of 20 deviser-performers, this immersive theater experience will take place on July 31 - August 17, 2025, at 7:30pm on Thursdays-Saturdays and 5pm on Sundays.
In Pompeii, Detour reimagines the fall of a legendary city as a fever-dream nightclub-an opulent yet doomed space where queers seek refuge, revel in the present, brace for the inevitable, and dance into oblivion. Drawing inspiration from Bob Fosse's cinematic and choreographic universe, Pompeii immerses audiences in a multi-floor, expansive experience where they roam between drag performances, high-energy dance revues, and atmospheric installations. Detour takes a queer maximalist approach to Fosse's iconic characters, reimagining their narratives as denizens on the brink of destruction. Scenes unfold simultaneously throughout the venue, allowing audiences to choose from a variety of itineraries.
"At its heart, Pompeii is about sanctuary-the places we build, the ways we gather, and the communities we cherish, knowing that nothing lasts forever," said Garcia. "As the Emcee in Cabaret says best: 'In here, life is beautiful'-even as the ground trembles beneath us. In the face of hardship and destruction, we find joy, resistance, and each other. We honor the queer spaces that have shaped us, revel in the ones we have now, and imagine the possibilities to come. What does it mean to create, to celebrate, to dream-especially when the world around us is falling apart?"
Pompeii follows the success of Detour's previous, sold-out immersive productions, The Twilight Aristocracy (March 2024 at The General's Residence at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture) and We Build Houses Here (May 2023 at SF Oasis nightclub).
The creative team includes contributing directors Kat Gorospe Cole and Chuck Wilt, lighting design by Del Medoff, sound design by Jaren Feeley, and costume design by Abdiel Portalatín Pérez. The cast of Pompeii includes Matt Barry, Cheetah Biscotti, Kacie Boblitt, James Brunt, Beef Cakes, Quinn Dixon, Kira Fargas, Lisa Frankenstein, Syd Franz/Les B. Frank, Yifan Gong, Glamputee, Kim Ip, Nico Maimon, Pangaea, Hadassah Perry, Wiley Naman Strasser, brooke terry x Bobby, Mudd the Two Spirit, Jo Williams, and Melissa Lewis Wong.
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