My Cousin Nelu is Not Gay

The Brick Theater Brooklyn, NYC March 2023

This is a mildly to moderately vengeful two-person show in which Diana spills their guts in a series of solo-show-style confessional monologues about being a lesbian Romanian immigrant in America, while her cousin Nelu tells the audience his story about being a raspberry farmer in the Transylvanian countryside whose farm is a front for the mafia. Nelu is NOT gay. Except in this show.

Director: Lyam Gabel 

Playwright, Actor: Diana Lobontiu  

Scenic Designer/Projections Designer: Sasha Schwartz  

Lighting Designer: Andre Segar  

Producer: Leslie Gauthier 

Assistant Director: Kelleen Moriarty  

Assistant Set and Projections Designer: Rachel Hodes 

Microphone Effects: Travis Wright  

Scenic and Lighting Assistant: Travis Martinez

Photos by David Rauch

This is a play performed by two butch actors. One plays Diana. The other plays Nelu and a host of other characters from his life. Both actors wear identical Adidas tracksuits. My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay features musings on the immigrant experience, an intimate dance with a disco ball, musings on the lesbian experience, fully eating cigarettes as a display of masculinity, musings on the butch experience, and an epic yet disappointing cousin vs. cousin showdown in the space created at the ~threshold of revelation~. This is an absurdist comedy butting up against a confessional monologue. This is a bilingual play in which English clashes with Romanian and the gays wrestle the straights to take control of the stage. This is what happens when factual family history meets the stories we tell ourselves about how we grew up, or how we wish we had.

We’d like to thank The Puffin Foundation for their support of this project.

Follow us: @mycousinnelu