Culture Junkie: On bourbon, diversity, and the 2022 Dickens Fair

“I’m from Kentucky. We’re bourbon people.”

I’ve just been introduced to actor Brian Yates Sharber, a first-time performer at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace in Daly City, at the edge of San Francisco. We’re in a noisy corner establishment called The Bohemian Absinthe Bar, located in Fagin’s Alley, not far from Mad Sal’s Dockside Ale House. Sharber, who’s just been served a bourbon on the rocks, is one of the singing-and-dancing cast members of the Cheapside Music Hall show at Mad Sal’s, a gleefully seedy and very popular performance space located on the outskirts of the Great Dickens Christmas Fair’s seasonal indoor recreation of the streets of Victorian London.

The Bohemian fits in well, with a vibe that is similarly scandalous, though it is not exactly a quiet place for a conversation. As my own bourbon is placed on the bar, Sharber offers a toast, with a soft bump of plastic glasses.

“Man after my own heart,” he says with a nod to my drink choice, adding, “Happy Christmas.”

Since being shut down by COVID-19 in 2020, and pivoting to a disastrously received “drive-through” version in 2021, the Fair has this year returned to a semblance of its previous form. Inside the sprawling Cow Palace, a meticulous “city” of streets, alleys, concourses and marketplaces has been constructed, with a vast assortment of shows, shops, eateries, bars, games and “areas” – many representing places from out of Charles Dickens’ books – along with nearly 900 costumed characters regularly interacting with patrons in this fantasy version of Dickens’ London at Christmastime.

While waiting for Mad Sal herself to join us, Sharber briefly drops character to talk about the changes at the Fair. Some are clearly a response to lingering COVID-19 concerns. The once-thriving Fezziwig’s Dance Party has dispensed with offering dance lessons, for example. Others are a response to concerns about the Fair’s underlying glorification of colonialism, with the previous presence of Queen Victoria and her court – to many a problematic symbol of English Empire – now gone entirely.

Likewise the Adventurer’s Club, a performance space where patrons have, in the past, been entertained by lectures on the Charge of the Light Brigade and other military/expansionist topics. For 2022, it’s been re-dubbed The Athenaeum Club, with the focus shifting more fully to cultural and artistic characters of the time, with “public readings” by such real-life characters as Charlotte Bronte and Edgar Allan Poe.

Last year, as the Fair struggled to stay afloat with its unwieldy drive-through experience, Red Barn Productions, which produces the extravaganza, became the focus of some unsettling reports from actors at the Fair. A group titled Londoners of the African Diaspora (LoAD) revealed years of unpleasant and harmful experiences at the Dickens Fair.

“The black experience at Dickens Fair is simply different from the white experience,” reads a statement on the LoAD website. “Racism is present and felt every weekend by the actions of uneducated and sometimes well-intentioned patrons and workers. Every single one of our black cast members has been called a slave. From ladies of the highest class to men at Sal’s. And if not a slave, then ‘surprisingly elegant.’ In the past, we have set aside these harmful experiences and in doing so, some of the integrity of our blackness, in order to step into a role that our white cast members can seamlessly inhabit.“

Asked about these revelations, a representative of the Fair directed me to a link to Red Barn Productions’ new 3-Year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan. The 20-page document lists a number of changes the Fair is committed to implementing, including expanding the repertoire of lead roles “to better represent the diversity of Victorian England,” and an effort toward decolonization of the Fair’s environment.

“Acknowledging and de-emphasizing the harm of British colonialism by no longer glorifying the Crown and all those who were directly responsible for the unspeakable brutality of colonial imperialism imposed on communities of color throughout the Victorian world,” describes the document among its decolonization efforts. “This means no longer including a Royal Household, removing the song ‘Rule Britannia’ from the event, and moving away from representations of the military and shifting historical focus toward the Arts & Sciences of the time.”

“I attended the Fair once about 20 years ago,“ Sharber says, acknowledging the observations made by actors of color, ”and it was obvious to me then, this is London in the 1800s. There aren’t a lot of people who look like me walking around, if you know what I’m saying. I enjoyed it, but for one reason or another, I haven’t been back until this year. When Keith Haddock, the director of the Cheapside show, asked me to come sing at Mad Sal’s, and offered me the song, ‘Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm,’ which I’ll do later in the day today, I said yes – because he’s my friend, and because the song is fabulous and I see it as an honor to sing it. And I’m so glad I did say yes, because I’ve been having a wonderful time. You do have to look hard for the diversity here, but there is diversity here – there’s me, there’s Mad Sal, and there are some others, and honestly, we’re thrilled to be here. We’re having an absolute ball.“

In response to the incidents of patrons casually dropping micro-aggressive remarks, Sharber shakes his head.

“What can I say? There are assholes everywhere, in every time period and in every part of the world,” he says. “I can’t speak for others or speak to what’s happened here in the past, but speaking for myself, this year, I’ve been nothing but welcomed. So, you know, so far, so great.”

Sharber is briefly interrupted by a patron approaching to offer praise for his performance earlier this morning.

“Thank you very much. I hope you’ll come see our next performance. It’ll be all new songs,” he said, before turning back to our conversation.

“I have to tell you, as a performer, the freedom I feel up on that stage in a show like this is phenomenal.”

“There’s a special energy this year, for all of us,” said Chris Steele, now joining the conversation. Steele plays Mad Sal, the proprietor of the Ale House, and one of the Dickens Fair’s most notable and recognized regular characters. “I’m a classically trained actress, and have done theater all over the Bay Area, and this is my opportunity to get back into a kind of performing I really love,” she said. “When Keith asked me to be Sal, he asked me to decide how she fits into that world, as a trans person, to decide where she comes from and who she is. That’s what I’m passionate about, telling trans stories in new ways.”

When not on stage performing in one of the venue’s revues, Steele, as Sal, spends her time welcoming people in, playing with them, and showing off in the gorgeous costumes the team has put together.

“I stand at the door and harass people a lot,” she said, with a laugh. “But I do it with a great deal of style and fun. So far, I’ve felt nothing but welcome and everyone has been very complementary about what I’m bringing to Mad Sal’s and to the Fair in general.”

Asked if this is the first of many years for her at the Fair, Steele makes it clear that if she’s offered an opportunity to return, she would. And not just her.

“I’ve brought a lot of other trans people in this year to be in other roles, some at the other music hall,” she said. “I’m passionate about connecting drag and trans performers – who’ve been historically excluded from theater – into the theater world. So being here, in this particular performance space, in this side of London, under the umbrella of Mad Sal’s, where the outcasts go, it just seems very fitting that this trans woman is the one leading it -- and I want to keep doing that.”

“To what I was saying before, people of color at the fair are few and far between,” Sharber adds, “and if that’s something that’s needed, then I’m more than happy bring a little darkness to the party. If changes need to be made, than let’s make those changes, and let me be a part of it, because I’m here and I’m ready, and I’m having a blast.”

Steele shares the sentiment.

“With me, I’m an activist through and through, and I’m here to make changes,” she said. “Yes. There is always work that needs to be done around diversity, but as a trans person I’m an extremely patient person, and if I can be the one to help bridge gaps, I’m ready to go to work. There is so much good that can be done. The opportunities here, for all kinds of diversity, are so important, and for those of us who’ve had to fight for even small roles in the theater world, to be given a meaty role and a substantial pay rate here, that’s incredible. So let’s take that opportunity and run with it.”

David Templeton’s “Culture Junkie” runs once a month or so in the Argus-Courier. He can be reached at david.templeton@arguscourier.com