Drag Brunch – The Brunch of Queens | Stage Review
Depot, Cardiff
Sat 28 Apr
****
Drag brunches have become popular in recent years, in big cities such as New York, Sydney and London; but unless you’re not in/or a fan of the drag scene you probably wouldn’t realise that they’re a thing. The Depot in Cardiff, known for its diverse pop-up events, had drag queens lipsyncing or singing while brunchees ate ‘avocado smashes’ and drank as many free glasses of prosecco as they could before 1pm (when it stopped being free), while the event’s host, Jolene Dover, stalked the tables, leading to an atmosphere of ‘anything can happen’. As well as host Dover, the drag part of the brunch included Gypsy Divine, Polly Amorous, Fae West and Aida H Dee.
While cutting well done crispy bacon with plastic cutlery was a bit of a challenge, the brunch was delicious -included in the price was a choice of the hipster street-food standard: smashed avocado; BBQ baked beans and my choice – french toast, hence my problem with the bacon – sawing away at it with a plastic knife only to look up to the photographer taking a photo at that moment… thanks a bunch. Also on offer were dishes from Artisan Crepes. Once everyone had loosened up with their free glasses of prosecco up it was time for the first bit of entertainment: bingo! There being three winners but only one bottle of prosecco is where the lip-sync comes in; this had people literally climbing the walls, or at least one person climbing the giant light boxes at the back of the Depot.
A testament to the rising popularity of female drag queens, the first act was also the reigning winner of this year’s Jolene’s Drag Race competition – Fae West, who looked amazing as her lip-syncs to Katy Perry and No Doubt were in keeping with the songs choices of the afternoon.
Gypsy Divine’s old-style drag of comedy songs and crowd work was quite refreshing to someone used to the new style of drag; her first number was the comedy song Oi Mush, with Gypsy performing as her half-sister Bonifa, while later on she sang I Will Survive as everyone was well in their cups. The peripatetic Polly Amorous must be The Greatest Showman’s biggest fan, so it was no surprise that she would sing a number from the film and it got the first big reaction of the afternoon; I’m totally in the minority of non-lovers of that film and I can’t seem to get away from the song This Is Me but Polly is (one of) my favourite Cardiff queen(s)! Her other love is Dua Lipa and the crowd loved her performance of New Rules.
Aida H Dee is a queen I’ve never seen before but an energetic performer I’d be happy to watch again, her rendition of 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up? got the crowd up and singing along… hard to believe it was only 2:30 in the afternoon!
Host Jolene Dover’s Sweet Transvestite was a highlight and everyone was up on the benches (and tables to the dismay of the security) for her final song I Wanna Dance With Somebody!
Maybe hosting the event on the same day as rugby’s Judgement Day was the reason for Depot looking slightly empty, but it is a great space for this. Hopefully word of mouth will mean that the next one will be even more popular. As someone who usually sees drag queens past 10pm in Mary’s, Drag Brunch – The Brunch of Queens was a slightly surreal and entertaining way to spend a bright Saturday afternoon.
words CHRIS WILLIAMS