As Oh, Mary! causes chaos in the West End, Mason Alexander Park and Dino Fetscher speak with Gay TImes about the play’s camp brilliance and why niche queer projects are finding global audiences.
Words by Sam Damshenas
Design by Chyna Sudbury
“A lot of it’s me, and a little bit is The Grinch,” Mason Alexander Park says of their turn as Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary!, an unhinged, feral and aggressively queer fever dream of a play that has finally landed in the West End following its lauded Broadway debut. Written by Cole Escola, who made history as the first openly non-binary performer to win the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, the production follows a miserable, alcohol-soaked and deeply suffocated Mary in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
While there have been various queer icons who have taken on the mantle since, from Jinkx Monsoon to Titus Burgess, Mason’s version of Mary lands (for me, anyway) somewhere between Roger from American Dad and Kathy Burke in Gimme Gimme Gimme: sneering mischief, zinger one-liners and comic cruelty worn like a badge of honour. Mason tells Gay Times: “If you think of all the Betty Davis-es and all the people that queer men have sort of idolised since the beginning of time, Mary is among that lineage of people.”
Starring alongside Mason is Fool Me Once star Dino Fetscher as Mary’s Teacher, a hunky acting instructor who helps Mary chase her stage dreams, while secretly harbouring a few scandalous secrets of his own. Describing the character as “the quintessential Disney prince,” Fetscher is coy about how his story unfolds, teasing: “It goes to an unexpected place. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had on stage, and getting to play with Mason every night, we have so much fun.”
As Oh, Mary! continues to wreak delightful havoc in the West End, we sat down with Mason and Dino to discuss the riotous play, why niche queer projects are finding global audiences and the freedom of being part of something so unapologetically queer (and f**ing insane).
Mason: I was aware of Cole’s work as a performer, and so I assumed that the show was going to play into all of the things that I enjoy about Cole’s offbeat queer comedy. So, I had an interest in the title before really knowing anything about it. Then I got asked if I’d be interested in doing it three days before I was going to see play the role for the first time. It was this amazing kismet. It all happened in one week, and I fell in love with it. I truly laughed so hard, I thought I was going to piss myself, and I think that that never happens in the theatre. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that a comedy has made me physically recoil because I was in such pain [from laughing].
