Paul T Davies reviews Wasteman at Assembly as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.
Wasteman
Assembly, Edinburgh Fringe
4 Stars
Book Tickets
Joe Leather’s semi-autobiographical play was inspired by his experience of working as a bin man during lockdown while performing his drag on Zoom. It’s an accomplished piece, dealing with fighting your inner saboteur and trying to find confidence to perform, and the juxtaposition of working in a heteronormative environment while being gay.
The play is well structured as Joe considers and then enters the Miss Stoke pageant and he is a wonderful performer. Plenty of gags to enjoy, but the play was inspired by a personal event, and it’s quite poignant in places, tackling homophobia and attacks, sadly much in the news this week.
Ultimately, it’s a celebration of identity and queerness and highly recommended! An original drag coming-of-age story.
