Jo Tan’s one-woman show brings drag to Summerhall as part of the inaugural Singapore Spotlight.
Aptly staged in the Former Gents Locker Room, King follows PR Geok Yen, who seems to have it all: a good job, a stable relationship and marriage prospects, but when she goes to a work party in drag as the bold, opinionated Stirling Da Silva everything changes. Soon promotions loom, female coworkers see her in a different light, and Yen finds herself in a world she’s yet to understand.
Tan fills the small room with her presence, impersonating characters like dull partner Matthew, work gossip Jezebel, the abrasive Cheong Jin and the sassy Mama at local drag night Club Crabaret. She juggles all these larger-than-life figures with ease, with small changes in gestures and posture. Stirling, of course, get the most OTT treatment; he flirts with the audience, thrusts his crotch and performs K-pop dance routines. He knows no boundaries- and this gets him into hot water more than once…
There’s much for Yen to learn: the privilege she has as a cis woman, appropriation of queer language, why more femme-leaning boys have a hard time trying to date in Singapore and where Yen ends and Stirling begins. He’s the epitome of toxic masculinity so prevalent in online spaces, and Tan explores this with nuance and humour.
King brings a fresh, bold new voice to the conversation on queerness, gender and their intersection with Singaporean society.
*****
King is at Summerhall from 21-25 Aug.