Sound of the Underground
Royal Court Theatre, London
 

 
THE Royal Court still maintains its special, innovative role in the theatre world, though its best new voices now find inspiration from questions of identity, not class.

Sound of the Underground, written by Travis Alabanza, is a theatrical extravaganza fit to blast you into space. Alabanza, who themself identifies as black, transfeminine and gender non-conforming, wrenches this performance art from its more habitual environment of queer clubs, gay bars and lowlife cabaret and parades it with consummate daring on the main stage of the Royal Court. And what an epiphany it is.

At first impression, the audience seem planted, so ready are they to cheer, pantomime-style, at the cast, laugh at the jokes and generally whoop and heckle. Only when the cast thread through the audience with QR cards, and people jump out of their seats with phones to bestow a gratuity, do we see that the auditorium is awash with genuine drag aficionados who’ve come to see their heroes.

This isn’t just a play; it’s the enactment of a genre: of a real world that’s been yanked from the shadows and spread out for scrutiny in the midday sun.  

As the show gathers pace, we’re all part of it. We learn of the necessity and the glory and the sheer compulsion of drag performance for those who live it. But we learn too  how this heartbeat of the queer community is also sacrificial… how its proponents stand out from the crowd, while offending even those who desire them...  how the night walk home from the club brings beatings in darkened corners... how drag  is work but not work because it’s identity, how drag artists get paid but not very much.

The vitriol against TV drag star Ru Paul is unequivocal for somehow selling out and ruthlessly trashing the lot of them. And we get all this through a mind-blowing orgy of colour and costume, hot lips and bare bottoms, music, swagger, and sex. It would be tacky to the uninitiated, except...

This is a performance at the top of its game. It lets us into the sleazy and secretive; it breaks the wall between the marginal and the mainstream; it confirms the infinite variety of identity that makes our world. It ignites our compassion and channels empathy.

Director and co-creator Debbie Hannan, together with the playwright, crafts an original and fiercely complex artwork here that strikes at many levels. But the cast are the unquestioned stars. With names like Ms Sharon Le Grand, Wet Mess and Sue Gives A Fuck, they are the genuine article, living a life of self-made glamour in a world more insistent on sticky toilets, rip-off managers, and horrendous working conditions.

A testimony to the power of collective action, they exhibit theatrical skills of the first order and give of themselves body and soul in an almost evangelical quest for heightened experience.

This is courageous theatre that changes hearts. It’s profound and transformational. See it, and you’ll never see drag in the same light again.   

Runs until February 25 2023. Box office: 020 7565 5000, royalcourttheatre.com