Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth
by Billy McEntee
Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth is an eco-medy for plant parents, queer folks, or anyone who’s fallen in love online. The plays development took place during the COVID pandemic with workshops on zoom, a socially-distanced backyard production, a staged excerpt by a creek, and a production in a sprawling communty garden.
Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth premiered as a socially distanced, masked production produced by Loading Dock Theatre for their Forklift new play series at the Boscoe Barles Backyard Center for the Performing Arts in October, 2020.
Featuring Jordan Ho (Cory), Jamie Lowenstein (Smin), and Daphne Overbeck (Cory’s Mom/Lime Ricky)
Directed by Charles Quittner
Sound and Lighting by Nick Auer
Set and Costume Rodrigo Martinez Hernandez
Music Direction by Nikolai Mishler
Dramaturgy/Forklift Associate Producer: Nathaniel Foster
Masks provided by Robert Dowling
It has become rote to declare that a pre-pandemic play “feels written for these times.” But yes, that is true of Cory and Smin. McEntee is especially precise on the pain, and at times desperation, of building intimacy online. The bigger accomplishment is tackling our supremely fucked future with a light touch, a joyful wit, and a comforting big-heartedness. Assisted perfectly by Charles Quittner’s warm, colorful production, McEntee hits that balance just right.
When Smin climaxes, random articles of clothing fall from the air, recalling Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways; gorgeous and soiled, luxury and detritus. Internet romances and perhaps queerness itself thrive in contradiction and ambiguity, in making artifice authentic again.
Kyle Turner’s response to the production in Token Theatre Friends
NOoSphere Arts
I curated a marvelous Pride spectacular part of NOoSPHERE’s We Are Nature Series featuring Cory and Smin with Pinc Louds, Fantasy Grandma, & Chris of Hur
Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth was presented as a 20-minute excerpt beside Newtown Creek produced by NOoSPHERE Arts with E.B. Hinnant (Cory), Declan Zhang (Smin), and Queen Robert (Lime Ricky, Cory’s Mom). Nick Auer and Rodrigo Martinez-Hernandez designed the space. The evening also featured Chris of Hur, Fantasy Grandma, and Pinc Louds kicking off a marvelous Pride weekend.
Smiling Hogshead Ranch
Cory and Smin was presented in Long Island City thanks to a Queens Arts Council grant. Each performance was preceded by a Drag Queen Gardening Club!
