The cover image for this issue of Artkrush is a detail from a photograph of Voyage of the White Widow, a performance piece by LA-based troupe My Barbarian. Typical of My Barbarian's playful, hodgepodge style, the show's narrative follows transvestite sailors, a Dutch seagull, and sequined mermen. Sociopolitical references — from the conflicts of slavery to the European Golden Age — lend an intellectual backbone to the drama. The group premiered the work in January 2007 at Amsterdam's de Appel and is staging it at the Whitney Museum of American Art on November 9 for PERFORMA 07.

My Barbarian formed in 2000, when its three principals — longtime collaborators Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade, and Jade Gordon — united their fierce combination of talents (writing, filmmaking, and acting/singing, respectively). In recent years, they've secured gigs at the UCLA Hammer Museum, Peres Projects Berlin, PERFORMA 05, and the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art.

The troubadours specialize in a unique brand of rock opera, which can come as a musical number, morality tale, video, or happening. Fanciful costumes, unexpected props, and beautiful harmonies — often set to scatological lyrics — add further confusion. In You Were Born Poor & Poor You Will Die, a musical epic set in an ancient fantasy world of high priestesses and animal deities, the trio memorably dons phalluses made of papier-mâché money and beat-boxes incantations with loose change. The group's inspirations are random, but brainy — Poor sources Roman mythology, classical drama, and dance. My Barbarian assaults viewers' every sensibility — from eyes and ears to politics and propriety. (LM)