At Saint Judas’s (1896) by Henry Blake Fuller

Henry Blake Fuller, The Puppet-Booth: Twelve Plays (1896), containing the one-act drama At St. Judas's.

Step inside the sacristy of St. Judas Church, a space usually reserved for ritual and preparation, now transformed into a stage for intrigue, longing, and theatrical flair. On the surface, a wedding is about to take place—a celebration of propriety, duty, and social expectation. But in Fuller’s hands, and through this contemporary queer reinterpretation, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

In this version, the characters’ quiet tensions bubble over into moments of playful exaggeration, flamboyant gestures, and witty asides that reveal the inner lives they dare not show to the world. The groom, poised and proper, shares the stage with his groomsman, whose loyalty and affection shimmer with unspoken desire and a flair for dramatic effect. Observers and attendants become conspirators in a game of social navigation, moral posturing, and secret theatrics.

Fuller’s original sacristy, a private and intimate setting, becomes a confessional chamber of camp delight: every glance, every folded hand, every whispered aside is amplified, celebrated, and made joyfully visible. Here, propriety is a performance, desire is encoded in playful gestures, and the tension between social expectation and authentic feeling is deliciously exaggerated.

This restaging honors Fuller’s subtle psychological realism while inviting audiences to see the humor, the exaggeration, and the queer subtext in a fresh light. The wedding may proceed as planned, but the emotional currents beneath the sacristy’s calm surfaces are impossible to contain—and infinitely entertaining to witness.

A celebration of love, longing, and the art of being fabulous under pressure. And there will be puppets!