LOU WALL’S DRAG RACE
This a a fun, frolicking show, frocked up, fabulous with some serious statements to be made, and it makes these, rather successfully. Using drag, a medium which, for too long, has been dominated by white sic- gendered men that use the medium, ironically – to push misogynistic, exclusionary and often transphobic humour, which in today’s hyper-politically-correct reality, has begun to fall flatter then ever.
But this performance doesn’t fall flat, it continues to reach great heights within its rough and unpolished manner and, in this shabby aesthetic, we see the true aesthetic of fringe emerge- of shows presented because they can. Thus proving in turn, that even without access to a mega budget, imagination is more than enough to create a work of merit and entertainment.
However, it’s not all perfect; through the choice of using mostly grabs from popular music, some of the casts talent is perhaps obscured. We know Louisa Wall to be an impressive cabaret performer, so audience is only right in feeling a little cheated by her vocals and musical talents being allowed just a brief moment to shine. From the rest of the ensemble, one performer packs more punch than any other, that is Bailee Rose- a young Trans performer who is fiercer than fierce, a hot mess of death drops and nipple tassels- one to watch, and proof that drag can and should exist outside of gay venues which to this day still stand as a Bastille to white sic-gendered gays .
This performance will certainly have a second cumming, which it rightly deserves, but with such dense material and hot topics central to its mechanisms, it is also deserving of further development, because even though it speaks to the very heart of fringe performance, for some it could still come across as a little under-polished, even within this sub-genre of low rent, high caliber performance.
