We are now entering the final countdown to Christmas, that orgy of consumption, and this hoe hoe hoe is heading out east to the former industrial waste land so magically transformed by the Olympics that real estate agents now refer to it as St Ratford.  

Carrying on the theme of transformation is Pecsmas, a drag king take down of Xmas that would have the Three Kings checking for the receipts on their gifts so that they could return them and get something a little more fabulous. Does Tom Ford do a Frankincense and Myrrh based woody floral? 

It was that wise man Stephen Sondheim who said, wisely, that if you’re gonna be a stripper, a drag queen or a drag king then you’ve Gotta Get a Gimmick. And where Pecsmas delighted its audience most was when its performers got their gimmick on.  

So we had a socialist Scottish Santa (Jodie Mitchell / John Travulva ) deconstructing capitalism and patriarchy for the pre-election night Brexit Remainer audience. Amid the popular anti Boris barbs there was plenty of subversive wit about the season. How does capitalism manage to goad everyone into paying to celebrate the gluttony of Santa’s jelly belly one week and then shame them into paying for it again in diet meals and gym memberships straight after?  

Special guest for the evening CHIYO managed the double hit of Drag King and stripper. The audience loved, loved, loved it. There is nothing more queer than a largely lesbian audience going Magic Mike crazy over a butch lad with painted on chest hair spurting spray cream from a pair of piggy y-fronts.

The overall story was that traditional tale of the ghost of toxic masculinity Past, Present and Future. The Past was George Michael’s Last Christmas where we are reminded it came out in 1984 but he did not til 1998. The Present was an act of self-reflection for the selfie generation. And the Future was well hey, spoilers! 

Although some of the lip-synced pop numbers felt flat due to a lack of the magical gimmick that lifts it above plain old miming the MC and star of the show, Jodie Mitchell / John Travulva kept it all bubbling along. By the time they led the audience in a rousing ‘I wish that every Christmas could be Gay’ sung to the tune of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day the audience had forgotten that they were expecting the return of Thatcherism blue in tooth and claw the next day. That alone was worth the ticket price.  

Until December 20th 2019
The Yard Theatre, London

Review by Andrew Hebden

Queerguru Correspondent Andrew Hebden is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.