ajhlovestheatre

DRAG BABY

by Grace Carroll

directed by Joseph Winer

Pleasance Theatre, London – until 22 June 2024

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/drag-baby

It’s not often that you come out of a show wishing it was twice as long, but that’s the case with Grace Carroll’s Drag Baby, which is just concluding its run at the Pleasance’s Downstairs space in North London, following a 2022 presentation at the Kings Head. As it stands, it feels very much like a work-in-progress, a sliver of a play (even with a lot of music the whole thing clocks in at barely 75 minutes) wrapped up in a ton of glitter, attitude and some glimpses into contrasting drag performance styles.

The brevity of the piece is unfortunate as the basic premise of the piece commands attention but doesn’t get enough room to breathe or explore: estranged childhood sweethearts Dan and Sally, both now gay or at least bi-sexual, he now a drag queen in a liaison with a fellow performer and she in a lesbian relationship, meet to explore possibility of having a child together. It throws up a lot of intriguing factors -jealousy, family expectations, shared history, party lifestyle versus domesticity- but hasn’t the time or the depth to really examine them.

Carroll’s dialogue mostly lacks flavour, and the characters feel so perfunctorily drawn that it’s hard to empathise with them, despite the valiant efforts of the cast. More time to establish who these people are and why they matter so much to each other, and why they should matter to us, would pay off rich dividends in terms of making this into satisfying drama.

Only one performer, charismatic, witty Ché as Nathan, the avant garde drag performer in love with Dan and whose tough exterior conceals a young lifetime of hurt, rises above the script’s limitations, creating a fully rounded character with authentic presence and edge. Furthermore, the extended taste we get of Nathan’s outrageous onstage antics are so exciting and bizarre that it’s a bit disappointing when we have to go back to the play itself. Stephen Cheriton’s Dan is likeable and natural, without ever quite suggesting why everybody’s falling at his feet, and doesn’t feel ruthless enough. The subplot about his upcoming TV break seems curiously under-explored.

Nicole Evans fares better as overeager, insecure Sally, making her compellingly needy yet manipulative. As her partner Amelia Parillon has a nice line in aggrieved disapproval but is given far too little to do. The ending, which sees the two women sort-of making up, is such a dramatic non sequitur that the audience isn’t sure whether to clap.

Joseph Winer’s production is highly watchable but suffers from pacing issues – there are a couple of ponderous gaps between scenes that not even the disco bangers being played over the sound system can fill – and doesn’t fully master the wide, shallow playing space, resulting in some lost laughs and fudged emotional moments. Olivia Heggs’s movement direction is spot on, as does Lu Herbert’s suitably glitzy but dingy set.

This feels like an appropriate theatrical offering for Pride month, but falls between two stools: in its present form, Drag Baby is too weighty to be a frivolous curtain raiser to a night out on the town, but too brief to really work as a complete play. Promising but frustratingly flimsy.