A Sickening Performance: PULP’s Review of Drag 101: A New Drag Showcase
On Friday the 13th of February, full of spite from the working day, I stumbled down the stairs of the Cellar Theatre and sat my arse down on a metal bleacher for what would turn out to be the best evening of my week. The flyer for the performance said the show would feature “Brand New Drag Royalty”. It would have been unwise to let this “brand newness” dictate any expectations of the talent, as each drag performer shined, unwaveringly fierce.
What strikes me whenever I watch drag, and particularly in a show aiming to highlight sparkling new drag performers and their talented instructors, is the joy. From the moment the confident emcee, Dandy Warhol, opened, laughter tumbled from the lips of the audience. As Dandy Warhol, wearing a long red velvet dress, waistcoat, and a moustache, introduced the agenda for the night and made a couple of playful gags about favourite performers who showed up to rehearsal on time, the audience was already cheering and thunderously stomping their feet.
The set of the show was beautifully constructed; a red felt chaise became a centrepiece of later performances like Barbara Biturates, who seductively/drunkenly laid across it during a live rendition of ‘Lilac Wine’. Grapes were painted onto the black backboard and fairy lights circled the red poles. The small room wrapped the night in a sense of intimacy, performers interacting with the audience and weaving in between the stairs. To challenge gender through art, to pull it apart and tape it back together in a new shape, celebrate it, laugh at it, subvert it, is something that possesses power and freedom. Drag celebrates many of the aspects of gender that we are taught so often to shroud in shame and threat, like bold sensuality. The night tapped into the audience’s joy, letting it rise to the surface like the bubbles in champagne. By having such an open set up, with the audience encouraged to be loud and performers engaging with them, this feeling of expression and openness was not limited to the drag artists but able to be shared with the audience.
Opening the show was Hansel Man Handels, lip syncing to ‘I’m Too Sexy’. The confidence of the dancing and movement across the stage was commanding. The range of performers felt unique to a university showcase. A standout image in my mind from the spooky rendition of ‘The Doll People’ featured Obi Chuary, head down hair streaked across face, limbs unsettlingly twitching with the music. A moment of silence to take it in was broken by whoops and applause and Deniz Nuts followed right on the back with a Western-inspired lip sync of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, complete with a gun and a cowboy hat which had my flatmate and I in hysterics. The diversity of talent meant that each act was infused with the personality of each performer, feeling transparent, vulnerable and powerful. And of course, the showcase featured all of the sexiest, quintessential elements of drag; tear away costume reveals, heels, tape, slut drops, lip syncs and more.
The love between the instructors and the new artists was palpable. Dandy Warhol gave a shout out to artists performing for the first time, never shying away from the impact drag has without letting speeches veer too sappy. The context gave an insight into the behind the scenes of the show, and made the experience more meaningful.
An extensive variety of genres of performance were brought to the stage in the second act. Asterisk, face painted with yellow and pink swirls, shimmied with a rainbow snake toy above her head, twirling it around her body. Scorching Ray performed a theatre song ‘Progress’ from Muriel's Wedding (1994), which satirised a character of a sleazy, dickhead politician. Jonny Inept, one of the dance instructors, moved fluidly across the stage to the song ‘Filthy’ by Justin Timberlake, stripping off each layer of a white suit shirt to reveal a blue suspender harness underneath.
The performances reminded me of the discussion of joy in Audre Lorde’s essays, the idea that sharing of joy in any way forms a connection between the sharers. For the individual, she writes, in an essay called “The Uses of the Erotic”, “we begin to demand from ourselves and from all our lives’ pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy we know ourselves to be capable of.” Drag breaks old patterns ingrained in our society. The drag showcase allowed us a glimpse of what it means to build new ones, ones that belong to ourselves, and walk our own path. When the show ended, my flatmate and I witnessed the familiar gestures that follow a production: hugging their friends and family, flowers and gifts passed from new artists to instructors.
House of Genet we love your Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent and we will be back for more.