A genre-defying musical shrine to queer identity and transformation invites us into an irreverent feast of gender, memory, and grief.

Once upon a vine, John Jarboe’s aunt revealed that John not only had a twin sister in the womb, but that John consumed her: “You ate her. That’s why you are the way you are.” This was a lot for John to swallow! In this musical shrine to the consumed twin, named Rose, John welcomes you into a feast of gender through song, storytelling, and a full plate of wordplay.

Created in partnership with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Featuring all original music written in collaboration with Emily Bate, John Jarboe, and Pax Ressler.

“As queer folx, however we identify, we are always in dynamic tension between being who we are authentically and the tyranny of respectability: fitting in by making ourselves more palatable, more recognizable to a cis-het society in order to get through the day, escape harassment, and for some of us, just to survive. I don’t pass. I don’t fit into a clean, commercialized narrative of transition. What I love about the story of Rose is that it is unmistakably disrespectful, pretty tasteless, and entirely me.”
– John Jarboe

Content Transparency

This performance includes themes of fetal mortality and growing up queer in Michigan in the 90s, some graphic eating imagery, and cannibal humor.