How the Spirit of Purim transcends into Rocky Horror

I recently attended UCSB’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Cast production,

which UCSB’s Creatures of the Night Production Company puts on once every quarter.

Customarily, attendees of the night's event dress up in Rocky Horror attire (or dressing

in as much red, leather, and fishnets as one owns, often donning heavy smoky eyes

and big red Vs or Ss depending on whether you’ve been to a live shadow cast

production or not). Then at the actual event, the audiences watch in total captivation as

a cast acts out The Rocky Horror Picture Show in front of the movie playing with…

added elements, which often become more and more exaggerated at each rendition.

This customary retelling of a wildly popular story reminds me of another story, the story

of Purim.

While this may be a wild comparison, the more you compare the themes of the two

stories and the traditions behind them, the more you can see the picture. Purim at its

core is the story of good versus evil. It tells the story of King Ahasuerus’s advisor

Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jewish community and how Queen Esther stands in his

way and exposes his plans to the king. This is a broad retelling, but the driving point

from the story is the expectation placed on all of us to stand up against injustice and

fight for human rights around the globe. Today though, Purim is celebrated through ritual

retelling of the story of Queen Esther. This is commonly done through participatory

storytelling where listeners of the story make noise when Haman’s name is read

through the use of groggers and shouting. Costumes are another central element to the

holiday, allowing people to step out of “every day wear” and embrace the story.

Hmm.. what does this sound like? Sounds pretty similar to Rocky Horror now doesn’t it?

Rocky Horror, like Purim, is a form of participatory theatre. People are instructed to

shout “Asshole” when they see the character Brad pop up on screen and “Slut” when

the character Janet is on screen very much like Haman’s groggers. As the story is retold

over and over, there are subtle variations in the way the performers decide to tell the

story in a similar way to the way the Purim story is retold over the years with variation.

Both the story of Rocky Horror and the story of Purim reinforce the idea of belonging to

community, with Purim being the resilience of the Jewish people, and Rocky Horror

shadow casts being a queer-affirming space which celebrates liberation of sexuality.

Both create a pocket dimension of being able to live in the fantasy of your choosing

throughout the duration of the theatrical experience and hopefully let you bring a bit of

that queer and/or Jewish joy out into the world with you when you leave.