January 13-19, 2005

artpicks

Stick a Pork in It

by Toby Zinman

benefit

Calling the cliche bluff, Pig Iron Theatre Company will likely make pigs fly with their fund-raiser, "Pigs In Space!," which they promise will be "a knock-down, drag-out, runaway blowout."

And since it's "for the love of Pig Iron," Philly's major avant-garde dance-clown-theater troupe, with a tip-top lineup of performers, the promise won't be hard to fulfill.

Quinn Bauriedel is doing emcee duties, introducing, among other acts, two of the wittiest-named drag queens. Martha Graham Cracker ("Philadelphia's tallest drag queen") will appear in a tribute to buxom country singers, followed later in the evening by Helen Back.

Other acts include: the clown girls from Flop!; the Cosmonauts, performing feats of thigh-strength in traditional Ukrainian dance; Rich Wexler as Veal Diamond and his "incredibly tasteful singing baby cow puppets," an act distinguished by its quantity of modifiers if nothing else; Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle, seen together this month in their Beckettian riff on Laurel and Hardy called All Wear Bowlers; the Paul Green School of Rock; and a very special appearance by Statler and Waldorf, direct from the Muppet Show grumble box. And for a finale, the Pig Iron company and Headlong Dance Theater will perform together in their first collaboration.

If you're still standing after this massive dose of entertainment, there's an after-show dance party with David Disbrow and Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey spinning and an all-night silent auction that includes dinner for two at The Borgata in Atlantic City.

"Pigs In Space!," Fri., Jan. 14, doors open 8 p.m., show 9 p.m., $20 in advance, $25 at the door, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-627-1883, www.pigiron.org.