Sex, Drag and Opera ★★★★
Kings Head Theatre, London
There is a delicious piece of Opera Cake on your plate. You can already see it’s a small slice. But you taste it and you love it. Just as you are about to get to the last, best mouthful, someone takes it away. That is Freddie Love’s Sex, Drag & Opera at the King’s Head Theatre, London. It’s delectable but, at 40 minutes length, too short.
Freddie Love, drag king, and non-binary gender illusionist arrives on stage in what can only be described as a plumptious red rubber vulva fashioned into an evening gown sporting a Mercury-esque pornstache. Freddie then goes on to articulate a plea to their muse, Opera, to discard the rigid conformity that they have comfortably settled into, and remember and embrace all their queerness.
Delivered as a love note, a lecture, and a meandering patter Freddie summarizes the roles and stories that make Opera camp. For each story, there is a glorious rendition. Freddie delivers the classic arias, Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen, Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Peppered in are a few pop surprises such as Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and a smidge of Billie Eilish delivered in the style of the Aria of the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Freddie’s voice is lovely with a mezzo-soprano that is perfect for the ‘trouser roles’ they adore.
A bit of Freddie’s biography is also shared. Freddie loves a savage femme. Picture Angelina Jolie in Maleficent or basically any Mistress of MILFdom. They all get Freddie ready. We suspect too many Glamorous Ladies of Wrestling at an early age. It’s more a stage character rather than a person that we are experiencing however the crowd eats them up.
If you are not the biggest opera fan and all you want are the big Popera numbers that everyone knows Freddie Love offers a sweet dessert trolley of them with back stories to help you feel smarter about the genre. Plus, a lovely dollop of creamy queerness.
Review by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor 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”
