Theatre review: WIG OUT!

If you’re looking for a night out over the festive season that provides masses of visual entertainment and a cast who throw moves instead of sweets into the audience, look no further than the Royal Court Theatre this Christmas, where an alternative to Panto is up for grabs.  Think Priscilla Queen Of The Desert meets The Rocky Horror Show and you’re in the right ball park.

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s new play picks-up tempo and flies, towards the end of the evening, with a spectacular drag ball finale.  The theme is how transgender groups on the fringes of New York society fight it out all tooth and manicured nail and create their own pecking order.  The result?  A colourful, comic display of black and Latino gay culture where the rules are complex and the games played are vicious and brutal.

The House of Light, a hyper-glamorous, uber-competitive drag queen refuge where a daughter who was once a son, can find a family, picks up the gauntlet thrown down by the rival punk-goth House of Diabolique, in a bid to re-establish itself as king (or rather, queen) of the castle at the Cinderella Ball – a catwalk showdown to end all others.

Trotting alongside this battle between the dirty rascal Diaboliques and the more appealing House Of Light, McCraney throws us a somewhat flimsy tit-bit of just how confusing and exciting this world could become, in the shape of the beginnings of a complicated affair between Nina, the House of Light’s rising star, and a gay guy called Eric.  The only problem is that Nina/Wilson’s strut between the thorny divide between opposite genders and differing worlds seems underwritten.

The performances are strong, thanks to both the talents of Dominic Cooke, the director, and his cast who saves Wig Out! from alopecia and delivers lighter entertainment.  Punctuated by the statuesque chorus (Holly Quin-Ankrah, Kate Gillespie and Jessika Williams) who steal the show with their pitch-perfect harmonies and excellent choreography, the action of the play speeds along with sassy music and killer costumes – all performed in a club cabaret setting that is both well lit and designed.

Craig Stein as Venus is superb and Nathan-Stewart-Jarrett’s Wilson/Nina deserves praise. If you’ve got a sweet tooth for eye candy, whatever your persuasion, then enter the world of a defiant, drag-queen culture that’s style over substance, but well worth an eye-opening look.

Wig Out!
By Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Until January 10th.
Royal Court, London SW1.
Box Office 020 7565 5000

http://www.royalcourttheatre.com

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