The Artificial Jungle pays tribute to Charles Ludlam, the patron saint of queer comedy

The campy caper is such a throwback, it borders on family-friendly.

One reigning camp queen remembers and pays homage to another in Hell in a Handbag’s production of The Artificial Jungle, the final play written by Charles Ludlam, the patron saint of queer comedy, before his early death in 1987. A la Double Indemnity, a hunky drifter (David Lipschutz) colludes with a stir-crazy pet-shop clerk (Sydney Genco, in fabulous female drag) to commit insurance fraud, murder her simpleton husband (Ed Jones), and escape the control of the family business’s high-haired matriarch (David Cerda, naturally).…