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POSTED 6/2/2023

I really loved seeing this in the venue Hi-Fidelity Brewing as I sat behind the bar listening while V told their story thru heart-breaking song on ukulele and guitar in as intimate a manner as can be. A gutsy confessional performance, I was having a Ginger Beer, but you might want a shot of whiskey when it is all done.

submitted by: Linda Shary, PF23 Independent Review Team

POSTED 6/2/2023

***First of all, this show, and this review, should come with content warnings for suicidal ideation, multiple descriptions of attempted suicide, and time spent in the psych ward. If any of these topics are unsafe for you, please take care of yourself.***

“Life Goes On” by The Triple Ampersand begins in a lively fashion – a sweet, smiling trans kid with a ukulele, regaling the audience with the story of two hopeful young lovers who have recently moved into a new apartment and are excited to start their new lives together. Having intentionally left the show description unread in order to go in without expectations or bias, I feel hopeful that hopeful that we are going to hear a tale of trans joy – but of course, life is not that simple, and we make fools of ourselves if we think otherwise. Instead, we follow V’s journey back and forth through time, catching glimpses of a suicidal youth, a young lover full of hope for a better future, a heartbroken twentysomething whose feelings of loss & abandonment are exacerbated by a global pandemic, and a psych ward patient demanding a piano so that he might have some hope of creating his own joy when it seems there is none to be found. Oscillating back & forth between songs & what feel like diary entries, V is deeply vulnerable with his audience – disarming us with the ukulele before breaking our hearts, asking not just his lover but his audience to feel the pain of a being who feels truly alone in the world – but uniquely, he does not ask us to tell him that “it gets better,” because that isn’t always true. His honesty is refreshing, particularly at the beginning of a month when the city is being covered in rainbows while some people are doing all they can just to stay alive. I hope that everyone else who attends this show can hold both of these things in tension with each other, making space for the hard things as well as the good.

Anonymously submitted by the PF23 Independent Review Team