It’s a drag – drag queens and pantomime dames in British culture
It’s panto season and the pantomime dames are out in force. The jowlier and less shaven they are, the better- there’s nothing quite as British as the sight of a totally unconvincing ‘Dame’, all stubble and hairy legs under the makeup and gold lamé.
The Pantomime Dame is one of those great English traditions. I suspect Aussie Dame Edna Everage owes much of her glam to this strand of drag. Widow Twankey, in Aladdin, is always a dame – the ugly sisters in Cindarella are often blokes, too.
But London is also seeing an explosion of a rather more thoroughgoing drag style with the opening of no fewer than three transvestite dramas.
La Cage aux Folles has already been going for a while at the Playhouse Theatre, and camp comedian Graham Norton will soon be stepping into the role of Albin. It’s a lovely comedy – nightclub manager Georges has to meet his son’s prospective in-laws, but what can he do with his partner, the flamboyant drag queen Albin – a big chocolate with a soft centre.
Wig Out! at the Royal Court looks like being a bit more of a hard nut. It’s set in a drag house – a highly competitive arena, all the more so when the ‘House of Light’ is challenged by another drag house to perform at the annual Cinderella Ball. This is very much American gay culture – not the kind of camp show you can take the children to.
Then opening next year, we’ll also have Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre, with a cast including Jason Donovan. I adored the film, which shows the adventures of a travelling troupe of drag queens travelling in the Outback, but I don’t know how well it will make the transition to the stage. (Though apparently the musical has been running in Sydney for two years, so that sounds as if it makes a pretty good show.) As with La Cage aux Folles, there’s a touching love story (or two) at the centre of the narrative.
I don’t know quite why there’s this sudden efflorescence of drag roles on the London stage. (In the opera,it’s more common to see a woman playing a man – Mozart’s ‘trouser’ role Cherubino for instance, or Octavian in Rosenkavalier.) But it’s certainly intriguing!
Photo credit – Melinda Green on flickr
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