parthenogenesis:

If you dropped in from another planet and you wanted to learn about the human race, you might absorb a lot of media about popular culture. Then you’d conclude that humans are in constant pursuit of the thing called “love.”  If aliens were screening media that was not rated G, they would figure out that the thing called “love” leads to humans removing their clothes, followed by behaviors leading to pleasure (or not) and associated with reproduction of the species.

In real life, that’s not the way some humans interact with others. They’re the “A” in LGBTQIA+.  People who are “asexual” have little to no interest in the physical acts that seem to be the driving force of some people’s lives. Like so many expressions of self that are now considered part of the pantheon of human experience, this lack of interest used to be labeled as a medical diagnosis.

You hardly ever see media representation of people who are whole, happy, and just fine without experiencing sexual attraction. Somebody’s always trying to “help” those people, fix them, or fix them up, imagining the “right” partner will magically unlock what must be hiding in there somewhere. (Think “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”)

Enter parthenogenesis: (the : is part of the title).

This multidisciplinary documentary theatre production provokes conversations about love and sex in an immersive history of asexual individuals and identities from antiquity to modern times. It incorporates multiple art forms, raw testimony, academic research, site-specific happenings, multimedia, and spoken word.

parthenogenesis: won great acclaim for its first staging in 2020, earning a commission to return in March 2021. The all-womxn production team says the new site brings new expenses, including technical equipment and licensing fees for QLab to sync audio, video, and light cues.

It might not be your cup of tea, you know? Not everybody likes the same things. Check it out here.