"Extravagant performance of gender is perilous and double-edged L’Amour (aka Stephen Lawson) of theatrical marvels 2boys.tv. “It attracts as much disdain as admiration and, in many places, it can get you killed. We are very interested in the role that queens and trannies have played throughout our history and the ways in which these figures have served at the forefront of a multitude of liberation struggles, as catalysts for change.”

L’Amour is half of 2boys.tv; Aaron Pollard’s keen eye and technical prowess provide the spectacular landscapes that L’Amour interacts with. Pollard and Lawson began working together in 2002 and are known for melding drag with music and video projection and infusing the result with a campy aesthetic and an explicitly gay edge. During a performance of 2007’s ArtHouse Cabaret, audiences were stunned into silence by 2boys.tv’s performance Pas peur (No Fear). The piece reflected on the torture of Abu Ghraib prisoners by projecting images of hooded and twisted bodies on a screen while L’Amour, swathed in black, lip-synched to a somber operatic number. At the end of the number, one audience member booed. Pollard was pleased: “I think this work came as a bit of a surprise to ArtHouse audiences, as it was presented toward the end of a pretty raucous evening of entertainment. In other contexts, the reaction is different, though the work — as was intended — often elicits a moment of silence.”

2boys.tv returns to the Buddies stage with Tightrope, a new work that explores the void created by AIDS. When the crisis hit, Lawson and Pollard had barely reached adolescence. “A huge percentage of men just a few years older than us vanished,” Pollard says, “and there was a deep and lasting impact on our lives. This crisis left an enormous cultural gap that remains to this day.”

Drag plays an important role in Tightrope, beyond Lawson’s performance. The show calls for a chorus of “drag mourners” to appear onstage alongside L’Amour, and 2boys.tv decided to recruit queens and performers from the local community. Pollard explains that the casting “situates the work — both the process and the result — in the place where it is presented. When we take our work on the road, we always aspire to really visit a place, interact with people, rather than just dropping in.”

Working with the House of Bogue, which will join the Toronto cast for three nights, in the Montreal production of Tightrope tied the work to that city’s AIDS history. The Toronto queens will mourn our city’s loss, making the piece that much more personal, literally hitting too close to home. “Tightrope is more about invoking a set of images and ideas that recall a past. In doing so, we are remembering a whole generation of people we barely met,” says Pollard — remembering and honouring with fabulous costumes and deliciously campy performances.

Tightrope runs Thurs, May 26 to Sun, June 5 at Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander St. buddiesinbadtimes.com

Michael Lyons will appear in the Tightrope drag chorus. Mourning black is so slimming.