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xZee Zee Theatre
Tucked and Plucked

Dates and Venue July 3 @ 8pm) | Surrey City Hall Theatre

Reviewer Ed Farolan

This show was both entertaining and educational. Most of the audience members didn't know what drag queens were all about. And so, the host/hostess of the show was Zee Zee Theatre's Artistic Director The Queen of East Van, Isolde N. Barron (Cameron Mackenzie) and co-hosted by The Baddest Bitch, Peach Cobblah (Dave Deveau). This is a remount of their show at the the rEvolver Festival and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. 

 Tucked and Plucked is described as "a Drag Herstory" and this time with a Surrey focus. It's done in a talk show fashion where Mackenzie interviews three drag queens: the Queen Bee of Surrey, Mz. Adrien, the current drag Empress of Surrey, Amanda Luv, and Mona Regina Lee. Each one did a lip-sync before the interview, and the show ended with a lip-sync of Mackenzie and Deveau doing a Judy Garland and Liza Minelli duet of songs from the American songbook.

The audience learned a lot not only some of Surrey’s drag queen history, but also about the history of drag queens from the beginning of the human race, including prehistoric times, till today. According to Mackenzie, drag queens started with the dinosaurs, and you could tell from their pink horns.

Then there was Jesus Christ, Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth. In the case of Shakespeare, the whole idea of having actors dressed up as women was a drag concept. The word "drag" is an acronym for "dressed as a girl". Something I never thought of. There were other lessons the Surrey audience learned and quizzed about later in the show. For example, what does "tuck" mean? That's when you tuck your male genitalia so you'll look like a woman. We also learned about courts and empresses, and a lot more about "drag herstory".

This show was a hit during the rEvolver and PuSh festivals, and the audience left the studio theatre smiling and happy.

 

© 2015 Ed Farolan