Ringwald Theatre tackles relationships, labels in new show

FERNDALE — A new production from Ferndale’s Ringwald Theatre with an intriguing name will premiere this month.

The theatre’s production of “Cock” will start March 7 and run until March 31. The shows will be held at the Affirmations Community Center, 290 W. Nine Mile Road.

The play “Cock,” also known as “The Cockfight Party,” is about a man named John who, while on a break from dating his boyfriend, meets and falls in love with a woman and the conflicting feelings that follow.

Miles Bond, who plays the boyfriend of John in the production, has been performing in shows at the Ringwald for around 10 years, and what he loves most about the play is how it’s about queerness and identity.

“In this play, more so than a lot of the stuff that I’ve done just generally everywhere else, it really just tackles the stigma with identity and the pressures that we have to identify as things, but mostly I just love doing work that heavily features queer artists and queer people,” Bond said.

Director Joe Bailey said the play is interesting as it is performed with no sets and no props.

“It’s actually proving to be so different,” he said. “There’s nothing. There’s no chairs, no cubes, nothing. Just the actors on the stage. So it’s been challenging, but in a good way and an experience that I’ve never had before directing a show in all of my many years.”

The play’s topics, which include one’s sexual identity, were something they wanted to touch on, said Bailey.

“It says a lot about identity, sexual identity and just identity in general, which is a big issue that we’re facing right now and has gained traction over the last few years,” he said. “It just seemed as though all of the signs were pointing that this was the time for us to do it.”

Bond said the subject matter of “Cock” is about how much people give to labels and identity, and how it calls out the ridiculousness of labels and the damage they can cause.

“Also, in a way, it tackles the importance of them, too,” Bond said. “They’re all important because we have to learn how to identify things and stuff like that just for a better understanding of them and for other people who aren’t familiar, but also it’s just not as important as we think it is, I guess, like to just to be and to let people be. This play really shows the potential damage in putting pressure on having to identify as one thing over the other.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost $25 for shows on Friday through Sunday and $15 for Monday shows.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit theringwald.com.