With SA celebrating Pride Month, the timing couldn’t be better for a bit of education into one aspect of the LGBTQIA+ community - its drag culture.
And “House of Pink Volume 3” handles that aspect masterfully with Lebohang Toko at the helm.
In a recent chat with Toko, he unpacked the journey.
He explained that two years ago, Zodwa Shongwe from The Market Theatre alluded to them not having a lot of productions with queer bodies involved.
Toko added: “‘House of Pink Volume 1’ was like a prototype to see: will it work, won’t it work? I sat down and ran with it because I got so excited. And I went scouting. So, here’s the other thing about drag queens: we’ve got performers and drag queens who are also performers.
“For drag queens, it is not a role. It is a queer body, and it’s how they express themselves.
“I scouted the top-notch drag queens for ‘Volume 1’ and kind of created a drag show that still kept the culture of drag, which is the underground scene, but brought it to a mainstream stage.
“With that in mind, I started creating storylines and threads through so that it is not just about lip-syncing and the wigs and the costumes.
“We kind of deconstruct the drag culture and still respect it but add the theatrical element to it to create a broader art in terms of storytelling.”
In ‘Volume 2”, individuality was the theme.
Toko shared: “Our storyline was following a young drag queen's journey into self-discovery and understanding of who they are, and so we used that thread line amid all the other six queens, including four dancers.
“Everybody was sharing their stories and giving understanding to the young queen of who they were and where they came from.”
He continued: “This year, I’ve gone with the ever-evolving evolution of drag. Drag is no longer the same as when it started in the 1950s. Today, it’s becoming something else. It’s not just about the lip-synching.
“The expressions vary, and they differ, so we’ve gone with the evolution of drag and how the culture is changing.
“In terms of growing the ‘House of Pink’, as much as we are entertaining and pulling out a beautiful evening for the audience members, you also want an audience member to leave with not only, ‘Oh that wig was nice’, but you want to have even if its 1% of understanding of the queer community and who we are, where we come from and what we stand for.
“Even if it is as simple as how we interact with each other and how we greet each other.
“It’s become very important for me to always have that it has that edutainment element. Even if it is an audience member who is not from the queer community but they leave with a small percentage of knowledge as to meeting each other halfway and respecting each other with love.”
Interestingly, while he didn’t intend on being the house mother of the production, he ended up doing so when the drag queen they had in mind for the role didn’t pan out.
Toke recalled: “On the final dress rehearsal, I had to step in holding the script and take on Ms Roj, who, at the time, had been sleeping for a good four years because I hadn’t woken her up.
“And so, I stepped in, and the producers were like, ‘Okay, we are not going to look for anyone else, so best you run with it because now you are the house mother’.”
And that’s what he did.
On striking a balance between being a performer in the show as well as directing it, he admitted: “I’ve been lucky enough to find a beautiful, beautiful team, which is my choreographer, assistant director and musician director and the team from The Market Theatre.”
“House of Pink Volume 3” offers a spectacular, fun show that taps into relatable struggles through its drag queens.
Make your way to The Market Theatre from October 26 - 29. Shows are at 7pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets start from R150, with discounts available for groups, and they can be purchased through Webtickets.
“Whispers in the Corridors”
A museum theatre production staged inside the Constitutional Hill Women’s Gaol shares the narratives of some of the women who were imprisoned there in the 20th Century.
The play was written by Stephanie Jenkins during her 2022 Writing Fellowship through the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS).
The performance uses three actor-guides, played by Clare Mortimer, Belinda Henwood and Sibahle Sibiya, who play multiple historical characters and take the audience on a journey through the former prison (now a museum), allowing present audiences to get a glimpse of the past, listening to the whispers evoked in this former place of confinement and punishment.
Where: Constitutional Hill Women’s Gaol
When: October 27 - 31, with two daily performances, times vary.
Tickets: Start from R70, and can be purchased through Quicket.
“Vincent”
After an overwhelming response during its two-week sold-out season earlier this year, the highly acclaimed production, “Vincent”, returns this October for a strictly limited run.
The show tells of Vincent Van Gogh's search for love, told through reimagined versions of popular musical theatre, pop, rock and jazz numbers.
Where: Theatre on the Square.
When: Until Nov 4 at 7pm.
Tickets: R155 - R210 from Computicket.