18 April 2022

BISS Review: 21st Edwardian Ball

By: Todd Spor Smith, BISS List Contributing Writer

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation. -Oscar Wilde

Even before entering the marble splashed rotunda of the century-old Regency Ballroom, one could feel the bottled-up enthusiasm spilling out onto Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. This space of Scottish Rite-styled architectural decadence, blending Belle Epogue and Neo-Classicism has long endured as the physical home of the otherworldly Edwardian Ball.

photo by Robin Fadtke

Outside, passers-by suffered collective bouts of whiplash as fiendishly costumed hoards lined up in front of the Regency, anxiously awaiting entrance into a turn-of-the-century fantasy snow globe world, replete with Edward Gorey’s fever dream wonders within.

The 21st Edwardian Ball, cancelled for 2021 and postponed until April 1-2, made up for lost pandemic time, revving up the glorious weirdness and dripping sensuality that draws the wonderment of participants and performers alike. Once inside, guests were set loose to follow their fancy, many drawn to the Grand Ballroom by DJ Delachaux’s “big-beat-burlectro” hauntings that vacillate between circus tent cabaret curiosity and post-séance ecstasy.

Entering the Grand Ballroom was truly a treat for the senses, including nonsenses, as masquerading steam-punk time-travelers flitted, flirted, danced, and mingled with proper socialites, spinning knobs on Mechateuthis the Giant Squid, whose moving tentacles required the sorcery of attendees to animate at the back of the ballroom.

photo by Jane Hu

The stages, stacked and bedazzled, barely contained the orgiastic scene. Emcee Kingfish (of Hubba Hubba Burlesque Revue) kicked off Saturday night, carney-barking and rabble-rousing the Grand Ballroom crowd in between performances by John Brothers Piano Company, Speakeasy Syndicate with Vau de Vire, Renegade Opera (Madame Butterfly), Zoe Jakes Coven Dance (3 Furies), followed by Rosin Coven and the Vau De Vire Variety Show—featuring a myriad of bizarre music and spectral performers, adapting Edward Gorey’s “The Wuggly Ump” a lighthearted tale of children and adventure—well, maybe not.

For those that delight in wearable art, then the titillatingly obligatory Dark Garden custom corsetry fashion show stood up to its promise with whalebone prowess as the Midnight hour struck.

photo by Robin Fadtke

Thanks to the kaleidoscopic lens of a few absinthe-saturated libations, the motifs and tableaus of famed storyteller/illustrator Edward Gorey come to life at the Edwardian Ball, punctuating the labyrinthine layout of the Regency Ballroom. Up various staircases, a turn-of-the-century Otis elevator and marbled walkways, we find ourselves on the Lodge Level, where we stagger and pose by the Fireplace Stage, where Green Valley Puppeteers, Jet Black Pearls, and Shovelman entertain the swizzlers in line at the bar.

photo by Robin Fadtke

The Museum of Wonders art exhibition, curated by Bay Area artist Layil Umbralux, beckons, so we cross another threshold in the doll’s house of the Edwardian Ball and are greeted by gravity-defying aerialists, trapeze artists, and wall-to-wall installations, steam-punk pyramids, and retro live-portraiture, and on the stage, Swingatto—a trio that smooths it all out with laudanum swing meets gypsy jazz.

photo by Robin Fadtke

We descend the stairs, then ascend again. We are chasing the madness of fleeting beauty, of vanishing art. We cannot be everywhere at once, so we decide to be where we are and let the world find us. It does. Then gets inside and makes us move again. Another absinthe. Another flight of stairs. Another dance in front of another stage. My cane taps loudly on the white marble as I beat my shadow across the room. One last moment with Mechateuthis the Giant Squid. A final tip of my hat to some fetching couple. Perhaps we know them. Perhaps not. In the end, this is a masquerade ball. They know of us what they need to know.