Wig Out!

Jerwood Downstairs:
Plenty of theatres will be trotting out the size 12 stilettos this season, but the Royal Court's 'Wig Out!' should win the 'female realness' category hands down. McCraney's drama is the tale of two drag houses, both willing to sacrifice all their dignity to win every category at the Cinderella ball. Their cacophonous scene is seen via a 'straight' gay man, Eric (Alex Lanipekun), who's flamboyantly seduced on the subway by Miss Nina (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett). At the mostly Latino and black House of Light, Nina is first 'daughter'. Her 'mother' is the legendary Rey-Rey (diva-ed superbly by Kevin Harvey with a lip-smacking growl of a voice ironically borrowed from Scarlett O'Hara's Mammy). But Nina's seedily scary 'father' (Danny Sapani) expects more than a bedtime kiss from his 'children'. At times, this is a ball: designer Ultz has reconfigured the stage as a glassy runway, perfect for the catwalk showdown. But the mirrors which reflects everyone's peacock flaunting attitudes and razor-thin emotional identities, also reflect a hollowness in McCraney's play, whose deeper notes of sadness and substance get chopped before they have a chance to touch you. Dominic Cooke's production often dazzles, but its 'realness' – the shadow of dysfunction dancing below the divas – leaves you with an uncomfortable aftertaste of broken glass.