Review: Life’s A Drag at WSA Cafe

Not for the faint hearted, Life’s a Drag was held at Winchester School of Art Cafe on Friday night. With a small audience of around twenty, it was a riot and as promised, it was also filled to the brim with sass and shade.

The beginning of the performance started out slowly, with Mileena Wyntr opening the show. It began with some casual chit chat with the audience, several long pauses and lip syncing. Conversation starters such as ‘Who watched Eurovision?’ were met with little reaction from a not very well warmed up audience. The subsequent forced responses from the crowd were awkward to say the least.

Credit: Union Southampton – WSA

Despite this slow start, stand up from Dynasty Diamonds set the ball rolling for a fantastically wild evening. Drag performances will traditionally shock the audience, and that it did, as some jokes involved very controversial material. Yet, with heckling galore, Dynasty Diamonds’ wit was a force to reckon with, particularly with the back and forth banter between the two performers.

Mileena Wyntr was full of confidence in the second act, strutting around the stage with blue lips, orange hair, six inch heels and a very short dress. Crotch grabbing was a common occurrence, especially during Die Antwoord’s ‘I Fink U Freeky’. Such wild, seemingly not choreographed moves were akin to watching someone dance in front of a mirror in their bedroom – like no-one’s watching (ironically). Nonetheless, it was still entertaining.

Credit: Union Southampton – WSA

The performers were certainly saving the best until last. One of the highlights of the evening was the raffle, where three lucky audience members were pulled on stage and asked why they should win the free bottle of wine. Considering that this was a Drag show, it is unsurprising that one of the raffle winners, a skinny man studying Marine Biology, defied all expectations by claiming to be a drag queen in Manchester.

Dynasty Diamonds’ final time on stage made this a night to remember. An Abba sing-a-long is always welcome, however, this was not the part that stuck in my mind the most. During the final lip-sync I was pulled on stage and twirled around. ‘That’s fine’ I thought to myself, I can dance along with Dynasty Diamonds (who, by the way is double my height in heels). To my surprise, I was suddenly picked up by the arms and spun around, pulling my knees to my chest in sheer terror, several feet off the ground.

Heart pumping, I returned to my seat, glad to have witnessed such an event.

Life’s a Drag was at WSA Cafe on the 20th May.