Kurt Cobain spoke about LGBTQ community and their rights back in the day when no one dared to speak about it. Cobain had a cult following and he never resisted from speaking his mind. It turns out that his efforts have been put in the form of a performance by Cassie Workman.
Cassie Workman spoke to NME and discussed about how Kurt was incredible as a queer icon. Cassie talked about the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-approved new play ‘Aberdeen’. She talked about how her work is a reflection on “depression, alienation and detachment”. The one-woman poetry play is a homage to Cobain. The play happened at London’s Soho Theatre after its critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Cassie Workman discussed about what the play meant to her and why it touches her. She said, “I’m transgender, and transgender people go through a second puberty. During that time, you look back on your first adolescence and the things that were important when you reassess them from an adult perspective. One of those things was Nirvana. Looking back as an adult on Kurt Cobain and his life and how deeply that affected everyone in my generation, I thought it was really interesting grounds for a story. I became obsessed with it.”
She continued talking about Cobain and what he meant for the community. Workman said, “I started writing, then I decided to go to Washington to research where he lived and see the places where he hung out and where he died. While I was there, standing under the Young Street Bridge, I had this epiphany that I should turn it into a poem. The entire show is in rhyming couplets.”
Cobain and Nirvana were always supportive towards LGBTQ community. The 1992 B-sides compilation album ‘Incesticide’ had lines from Cobain who wrote, “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different colour, or women, please do this one favour for us: leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records”.
Cassie Workman has performed the role to perfection and it looks like an excellent piece of work from her end. It would be interesting to see how the fans regard the show in coming days. The opening has been phenomenal, but it would be worth the time if the fans love the work too through the play’s run.
Have you watched the show or so you plan to do it when it happens at a place near you? Sound off in the comments.
