Staff Writer: Maya Pontes
Email: mpontes4@umassd.edu
In proper UMass Dartmouth fashion, Halloween weekend is met with a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
20 Cent Fiction outdid themselves this year with the 33rd annual performance of this historic and revolutionary film. The show was open three days, with a final after-midnight performance on Halloween!
Rocky Horror is very near and dear to 20 Cent Fiction as it established the formation of the club, making this performance more than a tradition. Each year the club shadows the film with live actors. Just as you’d expect, the audience participates as best they can with call lines and, of course, the ‘Time Warp.’
If you’re reading this and it sounds like gibberish, you are what the community would call a ‘Rocky Horror Virgin.’ Let me catch you up to speed.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Jim Sharman, was released in 1975 and quickly flopped. The show was eccentric and outlandish for its time, and the box office reflected that.
Luckily, just about a year after its release, the film came off the shelves and began showing after midnight at the Waverly Theater in New York City. The theater manager pushed for the film’s advertisement, and soon a culture formed.
The film’s soundtrack played as people found their seats. It created an almost party-like atmosphere, and sure enough, people came back week after week.
It is quite odd, but the film had regulars. What was too taboo to show during your average business hours became a midnight community.
As this continued, people began to interact with the screen, booing and cheering along to what became so comfortable and familiar. Eventually, people dressed up as the characters on screen and yelled response lines to our pixelated friends.
This audience participation became a staple of the film’s showings. Soon enough, people began to shadow the film and lip-sync along with the characters on screen. And just like that, the film earned its title of a cult classic.
You can learn more about Rocky Horror’s history at rockyhorror.com
Now, 51 years later, the tradition continues, and the culture is strong. Some return to live performances of the film numerous times throughout their lives. What started off as an absolute failure has become a symbol of queer expression and non-conformity.
Much of this is attributed to the late Tim Curry. Starring in the film as Frank-N-Furter, Curry made the show in many ways, and much of the community sits with a heavy heart at his passing.
A strikingly talented actor and activist whose performance became foundational to the queer community, Curry’s representation as a provocative cross-dressing alien transexual was transformative for the community. The after-hours showings of the film created a safe space where people could be expressive without the fear of hate or judgment, with the film’s release marked by its contrast with anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes.
20 Cent Fiction honored Curry’s passing with a vintage VHS of the film that featured extra scenes. To many, it was heartwarming to see the impact Curry has made on the community through people’s devotion to the film and its traditions. Seeing this echoed throughout our campus community is all the more empowering.
Valentine Davidson, the director of the show, spoke to the impact of Curry’s passing on the 20 Cent community and the Rocky Horror community at large. In their director’s note, they write, “Tim was an inspiration to us all, by being so unapologetically himself.” And it’s true– Curry was a queer icon, and there is no better way to honor him than to keep making a world where we can be ourselves, unapologetically.
The actors made the show wonderfully interactive. Because this viewing experience depends on audience participation, 20 Cent members not performing on stage joined the audience to yell their hearts out at their favorite call lines.
After 33 years of showing this film, a unique UMass Dartmouth culture has emerged. If you have gone to enough live performances of Rocky Horror, or just really do your homework, you will catch on that not everything yelled in the UMass Dartmouth Main Auditorium is a classic Rocky call line– this is because the club makes their own through this lasting, persistent tradition. It is a truly special community site.
The impact of the film on those in the club is clear. With many returning to perform each year, some even post-grad, it is more than just a movie or a school performance. It is a symbol of queer acceptance and representation, an opportunity to make new friends. It is a safe space. It is culture. But most importantly, it’s a really bad movie.