Just before midnight on the second Saturday of every month, the Albany Twin movie theater at the bottom of Solano attracts a crowd not often seen in our safe and mundane town.
Mostly young people line up around the corner, clad in fishnets, lingerie, corsets, sexy French maids’ costumes, and other scanty attire. Some have V’s written in lipstick on their faces; others just have sheepish or excited expressions.
What are these people looking forward to, on a seemingly normal Saturday night, in little old Albany? They’re waiting to see, and participate in, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
RHPS is the film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Show, a British rock musical from the 1970s. It spoofs the classic theme of “innocents encounter mad scientist in a castle on a rainy night” with its own sexual spin (transvestites and homosexuality being common themes). This intentionally campy picture quickly became famous for its midnight showings.
In Albany, a costumed cast trained by Barely Legal Productions act out the movie in front of the screen and “sacrifice the virgins” in a short pre-show. To clarify, a “virgin” is someone who has never been to RHPS before. The virgins are graced with a V in red lipstick on their foreheads and are invited up on the stage to dance to “I Like Big Butts.”
Many people are too afraid of this to attend, but senior Claire Fahrner noted, “I wasn’t that embarrassed the first time I went because everyone else on stage felt that way too, and I felt like the audience was totally non-judgmental.”
A midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show involves a lot of audience participation. You’re expected to dance in the aisles for “The Time Warp,” and you for only $2 you can buy a bag with everything you’ll need to fling during the movie, including throwing toast at the line “I’d like to make a toast.”
Over time, the die-hard fans have evolved a mostly obscene dialogue for the audience to yell in response at the screen. This is half the fun, and it takes dozens of showings to learn.
However, describing the experience is very difficult. When asked how to describe RHPS to someone who hasn’t gone, junior Matt Blankenship replied, “I wouldn’t even give them an explanation. I would just say ‘Go.’”
Many Albany students have gone once, and decided to go again, sometimes every single month. Sophomore Cordy Driussi, said, “I wanted to go again because it was intense, but really funny, and you get to do things you wouldn’t normally get to do in a theater, like yell and throw things.”
Driusi insisted, “It’s an experience you have to have. It should be on everyone’s bucket list.”
Fahrner added, “It’s nice that people from all over come to Albany just to see it. Overall, it creates a really safe and comfortable atmosphere.”
The next showing is December 10, so, why don’t you come on up to the lab— and see what’s on the slab?
