Don’t Dream It, Be It: Drag Society’s Performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Jess Cooper takes us on the Time Warp as she reviews Drag Society’s performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
It’s almost impossible to believe that this time last year, Drag Society wasn’t a thing. In fact, the group, led by Mother Toma, only gained official society status by LUU a few months ago. Now, with over 500 followers on their Instagram, a new collective of queer performers, and a freshly formed committee made up of drag queens, kings, performers and enthusiasts, they have set their sights on their biggest challenge yet: Stage One.
For those of you unfamiliar with the politics of the student theatre world (of which there are many), Stage One is the largest capacity theatre on campus, and has hosted productions of many great classics. Drag Soc has come marching with guns ablazing, ready to take on the 180 seats that form Stage One and blow them all away.
Our review of the show doesn’t start on show night, however. It starts backstage, two days before. There is a nervous but excitable energy coursing through the School of PCI. Dorothy Franklin – producer and new Secretary of the group – is lacing a corset up on Riff Raff. She tells me of her worries, her anxieties; she’s an experienced producer but even she can recognise the weight of the challenge ahead of them.
Hollie Ferguson, the show’s Lighting and Sound Designer, is calibrating lights to match the beats of ‘Dammit, Janet’. Toma, the Drag Soc President, director of the production and starring as the infamous Frank-N-Furter, lounges on a wheelable table like a figure from a painting, whilst fellow performer Sylva Lining spins them around.
I feel this fascination and awe watching them piece together this show, albeit chaotically. That fascination is also shared by Sam Rooke, a film-making student at Leeds Arts University, who is documenting the process. It feels like we are on this weird blend of The Office and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Toma sits on a seat in the audience, holding a cardboard cut-out of RuPaul with a wig on, whilst filming a confessional about the process.
I assist with a few odd jobs here and there; creating party hats and flame-proofing the paper that will be given to the audience as props; printing out a few bits and bobs; sticking up signs. It earns me a vanity credit in the opening titles as Assistant Producer, underserved but kind of them to share the glory a little bit.
That’s how I would describe Drag Soc: kind. There is an unabashed queer kindness that radiates from the group. Even in the chaos of what is show day, there is an air of calm and care that permeates the backstage of the School of PCI. I don’t think anybody has ever used the words calm and care to describe drag performers, but I’m quite happy to become the first.
11th February arrives and I arrive late (in true drag enthusiast style). All of the prop bags that Dorothy and I spent hours preparing the day before have sold out. I said earlier that Stage One is a mammoth venue in the context of student theatre. It’s very rare to sell out the venue, and many societies have tried and sadly failed. Leeds Drag Society sold it out on their very first try. It’s a testament to many attributes of the group of charismatic underdogs: a stellar social media presence, an overwhelmingly successful fundraiser at Hyde Park Book Club and months of effort increasing their visibility not only on campus but across wider Yorkshire.
There isn’t too much I can say about the show itself that isn’t to be expected; it’s a thoroughly fabulous production of Rocky Horror. Dorothy Franklin proves there is no skill she doesn’t possess as she opens up the show with a beautifully sung Science Fiction/Double Feature. Kitty Clements, who cut their teeth in Leeds student theatre scene earlier in the academic year with Open Theatre’s The Department of Lost Time, serves a hilariously camp rendition of Brad that makes me wonder if he really was queer all along. Molly Arthur, a performer known for comedic excellence who is from Leeds-based theatre collective Jambourine Theatre, leans into the hysterical physicality of Janet and performs a rendition of Touch-A-Touch-A-Touch-A-Touch Me with fellow Jambourine actor Elliott Rigby that left the audience in stitches.
Speaking of Rocky, Rigby’s ditzy characterization in I Can Make You A Man plays wonderfully off of Mother Toma’s Frank-N-Furter, which feels authoritative and powerful. The bait-and-switch which happens half-way through the show when a much smaller Frank appears (played by Sylva Lining) means we are able to hear a heart-felt rendition of I’m Coming Home. Despite this being a silly, campy drag show, I’m Coming Home is momentous and powerful.
It’s moments like these that give the show such beauty when compared with the earlier shenanigans of Columbia (Fae Fatale), Magenta (Aphantasia) and Riff Raff (Curiodyssey). Further shout-outs are due for River Styx, who does my favourite character Eddie justice, Via Banham’s Dr Scott and Nolly Quinn’s insane dance skills.
It was a wonderfully talented ensemble cast that you could tell had banded together to go against the odds and prove to the Leeds student scene and the wider Yorkshire drag community that Drag Society is here to stay.
As Frank-N-Furter says, “Don’t dream it. Be it.” Drag Society seem to be following this advice, and if they continue to, I only see success in their future.
Words by Jess Cooper