Drag takes centre stage in colourful Stratford Festival production

Drag queens are bringing a splash of colour to Canada's biggest theatre festival, in a classic play with modern relevance.

Some of Canada's most prominent drag queens consulted on Stratford Festivals' La Cage aux Folles, which features an all-male chorus made up of nine men performing in 10 different drag outfits. 

The musical is based on a French play of the same name, which won six Tony Awards after premiering on Broadway in 1983 and was also the source for the Oscar-nominated 1996 film The Birdcage.

The show's drag consultant Justin Miller, also known by his performance name Pearl Harbour, says he is "immensely proud" to bring his craft to Stratford, Ont. 

The plot follows a young couple who want to get married, but have parents from very different backgrounds — one an ultra-conservative family, and another with a patriarch named Albin, who is the star performer at a drag club in Saint-Tropez, France. 

Georges, the club's manager and Albin's partner, decides to feign being straight when his son arrives with his fiancée and her conservative parents. 

"This show broke such ground in the early [1980s], which we have to remember was at the very beginning of the AIDS crisis, as well. There was such othering and such fear. And this is a beautiful love story between two men, radical at its time," Miller said. 

"It's unfortunate that it's still radical, when we look into the villainization and the scapegoating that the drag community — and the trans community, especially — have endured at the hands of bad-faith actors who are looking to scare people."

Reality competition show RuPaul's Drag Race has brought new levels of mainstream acceptance to drag and seen the art form explode in popularity in recent years. It's a stark contrast to 1973, when the original French play by Jean Poiret came out, and the world of drag queens was a mystery to most outsiders. 

At the same time, public backlash against drag queens and trans rights has been ramping up, along with anti-LGBTQ legislation in North America, casting stories about queer culture in a new light as they combat a moral panic that seems intent to push them back into darkness.

Steve Ross, who plays lead character Albin, says it feels like the perfect time to reprise the story.

"We are setting it in 1978, so it's almost a period piece now. But I think the messages are still the same, and it's so vital," Ross said.

Beyond the queer themes and the glitz and glamour, he says the production is primarily a relatable, down-to-earth tale about the inner lives of people in love.

"The beauty of it is that we're not freaks on display, as you have in so many plays, but it's such smart writing, and we're just people who happen to be gay," Ross said.