Using the power of pantomime to showcase Bristol’s diverse drag scene

Bristol’s drag scene has been evolving and growing in recent months. This has culminated in drag performers Delirium and Cynthia Road creating a pantomime to platform the talent of the city’s drag performers.

From the December 19-21 at Strange Brew, audiences will be entertained by some of Bristol’s most established performers. The show will be a West Country version of pantomime classic Dick Whittington.

Delirium has spent the last year creating spaces for alternative drag in Bristol’s scene.

“After university, I moved back to Bristol and saw there was a gap for the sort of drag I was doing in London. It was more alternative and in London I first saw female drag queens,” explains Delirium.

They started a performance night called Slaughterhaus, which led to a bigger, alternative drag scene emerging.

“This year I stepped away from Slaughterhaus to start Femmegeddon – a space to platform women and non-binary people. I wanted to do that because these drag scenes are very male-centric,” said Delirium.

To Delirium, this alternative, punk aesthetic of drag fits well into Bristol’s history.

“I grew up in Bristol and I think that rebellious vibe reflects the ethos of Bristol. We are a liberal, punk city and historically, Bristol has always been at the forefront of protest,” said Delirium.

Gender identity has also played a large part in Delirium’s journey as a performer. They said, “I’m in an industry that’s very male-dominated. Being a woman in the drag scene, I always felt like I had to fight my corner, so that is very rebellious in itself.

“It’s been incredible to see how much the scene has flourished. To go from me being the only female drag performer to multi-gender performers across the board, I’m very proud.”

The pantomime works as a milestone, bringing Bristol’s diverse drag performers together into one show.

The drag panto is “a love letter to theatre”, says director Cynthia Road

Cynthia, director of the pantomime, has worked in drag and theatre performance for years. They said: “This is a love letter to my love of theatre. As well as how I truly believe Bristol has some of the best drag performers you will ever find.”

The cast of seven performers represents varying aspects of the city’s drag scene.

“We have seven Bristol drag icons, every single performer we have has performed in bars, clubs, for years,” said Cynthia.

“You’ve got Tess Drive, who’s performed here, there and everywhere. You have Dominique Fleek, who’s grown up in the scene as not only a person of colour but also a trans individual. These two have shaped Bristol drag into what it is now. The fact they want to be in it is amazing, the whole cast is amazing.”

The pantomime aims to provide a night of fun against a backdrop of rising anti-queer media rhetoric.

“It’s not just here in Bristol, queer people are on the out. We are the trendy hate of the month again. We’re returning to a time where the government has run out of things to disguise their failures. So they’re using the queer, specifically, trans community as scapegoats,” said Cynthia.

They continued: “We had a small feature in Bristol Live and one of my favourite comments was ‘I can’t believe men are playing women in the theatre now’. It just takes looking at theatre to know we’ve been doing that for a while.”

The performances provide the opportunity for audiences to see gender roles challenged

“At the end of the day, we’re not sending a big political message, we’re just having fun. Unfortunately, the very fact we’re putting this night on has become a political message. Queer and trans performers and audiences having fun has become a statement,” said Cynthia.

The power of pantomime

Pantomime has historically involved aspects of drag.

“The reason I’m putting this on in the first place is that the 90s was huge for panto,” said Delirium.

“Growing up, we used to go with school to the Bristol Old Vic. As a not-out four/five year old I was obsessed.”

The performances provide the opportunity for audiences to see gender roles challenged. “We’re told the girl has to be the princess and doesn’t have any autonomy. Suddenly, I saw the prince character played by a woman. That was mind blowing to me and it’s definitely had an impact on me as a performer,” said Delirium.

Commenting on the decision to make the performance adults-only, Delirium said, “There’s this rhetoric that drag queens shouldn’t be around children. It’s a very complex and interesting issue. I’ve decided to make this event 18+ essentially for artistic license. Us as artists want the freedom to be able to have fun with the audience. You do have to be mindful with a child audience. Drag is necessary around children, there’s room for all forms of drag. But there’s a time and a place for each of them.”

Against a challenging political landscape, Delirium and Cynthia want to provide audiences and performers with the opportunity to have fun.

Delirium said: “Everyone is finding it so hard at the moment. I wanted to do something uplifting for the community so everyone can have a fun time. From the audience perspective, they get to see us in our element and see what the Bristol scene is capable of.

“For me, I wanted to platform local artists and get them to be seen on a slightly larger audience base rather than just our queer community. I wanted to elevate us, we all put so much time and money into our craft,” continued Delirium.

The pantomime reflects the talent and calibre of Bristol’s drag performers.

Cynthia added: “You could go to any of these performers’ shows and they could all speak on the mic for ten hours. They can hold a show. We’ve never had them all together, scripted, in a room together. That’s why we chose them because they’re all incredible, they are Bristol drag.”

(Big) Dick Whittington, the all-drag, adult panto has sold out, but you can join the waiting list here.  The event will run from December 19-21 at Strange Brew with doors open from 7pm and the show starting at 8.30pm each night.

Andy Leake is reporting on the queer community as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media

All photos: Charley Williams

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