OxPHWOARd, the drag and cabaret arm of (T)Art Productions, kept the Pride going last Friday night with their latest show at the Old Fire Station. This show, which featured five performers plus long term host Ginger Tart, skewed more cabaret than drag, and boasted exceptional costumes and pin-sharp details throughout.
Ginger Tart opened the night in a white, beaded Marilyn Monroe dress, which she quickly shed to reveal a beaded rainbow unitard. Tart’s hosting style is part clown, part schoolmarm, and all brash, beatific energy. She did an impassioned lip sync to "Pink Pony Club" before running us all through the rules of the night. Tart has been a compère for cabaret and drag events since 2015, and you could tell from how easily she got the crowd engaged and relaxed.
The start of a drag show can feel almost like laughter yoga (in which you intentionally make yourself laugh without a humorous trigger). The audience is nervous and the separation between the stage and the seats feels stark: so the rowdy, intimate safety of the space needs to be induced before it can feel genuine. Tart excelled in creating a balance of clear expectations for us the audience (voice your enthusiasm, don’t be disrespectful) and an atmosphere of loud, goofy warmth. Her Ronald Mcdonald wig, cartoony, deliberately under blended makeup style, and freewheeling observations contrasted beautifully with the sharp, almost prim way she laid out instructions.
And then we were on to the acts themselves. The aptly named Cadbury Parfait performed in a confectionery costume: a baby pink wig with a full fringe and a pink feather headdress, fluffy white stole, long silky gloves. She lip synced to a delightfully tongue-in-cheek number, "Please Don’t Touch Me” from Young Frankenstein, a song about all the filthy things it’s perfectly fine to do - so long as it’s only in your imagination. Parfait’s performance was a great ping pong match of humourous and glamourous, coy and provocative. Funny, frothy and energizing, it made a great start.
The next act, Deeva D, leaned harder into the seductive vibes. Dressed in a glittering pink suit, he performed a routine to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam, Padam” (the pop song equivalent of city lights over the water) rhythmically disrobing to black thigh high boots and a pink mini-dress, then further than that. The choreography was intoxicatingly smooth. I don’t think I’ve ever been so mesmerized by a glove being removed before. What this performer excelled in was exuding presence. If he felt any nerves at all, you certainly couldn’t tell from the audience (and I was in the front row).
Next up cabaret artist (and, as we were informed, Horticulture student) Lily Lustre gave us some botanical burlesque, In a floppy sunhat, cat eye glasses, an icy lavender wig, loose floral suit she performed to the twee "In An English Country Garden". Twirling around the stage, Lustre radiated a kooky, sunshine-y glamour - until she dropped the act (and the blazer, and the lights) to The Zombies “Time of the Season” - plunging the performance into a witchy, transfixing tease. She controlled the stage effortlessly, maintaining a sense of feather-light poise through complex movements and a range of emotions.
Next we had Oxphwoard producer and longtime performer Frisky Whispers in an impressively creative Ken Doll-inspired act. Costumed as ‘Earring Magic Ken’ a real toy introduced by Mattel in 1993 in an attempt to make Kens cooler and just as quickly discontinued for looking, well, wildly gay (Google him), Whispers performed to a carefully curated medley of songs and snippets from different programs, giving us a whistlestop tour of Ken’s history before taking it all off. Funny, fascinating and well thought out.
Last up in the first half, was Trixie Pixie, one of Ginger Tart’s own proteges (or Drag children as they’re called). Pixie, who has also performed with Drag Syndrome, a collective of Drag artists with down syndrome, donned a vibrant rainbow taffetta gown, feathered headdress and classic blue eye shadow. Pixie performed a joyous, cheer-inducing routine to “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls.
After the break, Ginger Tart worked her magic again with a sing along to Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” - which included teaching us the accompanying dance. After the sugar rush of the show’s first half, the performers mostly opted for a more serious second act, with darker, slower, sexier choices. Cadbury Parfait’s second song was a more straightforward, revved up burlesque performance to Etta James’ “I Just Want to Make Love To You”, dressed in cherry red, with a huge plastic lipstick as a prop. It was fun and polished, if less memorable than her first performance. Deeva D also dazzled in red for his second number, pairing a billowing, translucent ruby dressing gown with languorous choreography to the slowburn soul of Lizzo’s “Lingerie".
Lily Lustre’s second act may have stolen the whole show for me. Ditching the wig to reveal long, halogen blonde hair, encased in an elaborate crown of fake snakes, she retold the story of Medusa, to the hypnotic backing of “Deceive” by Trentemoller. Her movements are ominous and deliberate, sensual in the way of a siren - more threat than tease. The choreography and drama in the moment of Medusa’s beheading was genuinely astonishing. The performance overall was awesome, in the true sense of the word - terrifying and beautiful.
Finishing on a high, and happy, note was Frisky Whispers second performance, showing us to very different meanings of the term ‘Daddy’. One minute he’s commanding the stage in leather chaps, the next he’s barbecuing in khaki shorts and accidentally throwing his back out. The double-performance had the audience in stitches and was the perfectly finisher for a night bursting with creativity, humour and beauty. I can’t wait for the next OxPHWOARd.