Writer: Joe Leather
Director: Kat Bond
One of the shows closing this year’s Camden Fringe might just be the best of the four-week festival. Featuring clear and affecting storytelling with a nice dollop of camp charm, Wasteman is a polished gem and fits into its 65-minute running time like an elegantly manicured hand in a sequinned glove.
For those of a younger generation living in London a wasteman is urban slang for a loser who kicks around the streets doing nothing, but Joe Leather’s Wasteman is what we’d more commonly call a bin man. Leather’s character – no name is given – works on the rubbish trucks in Eccles. He lives in the town with his boyfriend Jonty – posh, privileged and who has Ed Sheeran lyrics tattooed on his body – but the play starts at the end of their relationship.
Leather’s character’s alarm goes off at 4.30am, pulling him out of a recurring dream where he’s a famous drag queen performing in front of an adoring audience. Unusually, Jonty is already up, cooking an elaborate dish, a sure sign that he’s in an exceptionally bad mood. He’s waiting for an apology that doesn’t come. Before it’s even 5am our hero receives his marching orders.
But Leather’s character doesn’t seem that bothered. He downloads Grindr before his shift even begins. Jonty hadn’t been best pleased when he discovered that his boyfriend was an aspiring drag queen, his glitter and false breasts stuffed in the back of the wardrobe. But when an old friend calls up about a drag competition in nearby Stoke, Leather’s character’s dreams are reignited. He has just four weeks to prepare.
Despite the fact that for most of the play Leather’s character is not presenting in drag – he’s at work mainly – Leather still has his make-up on, tights under his work shorts and a purple scarf covering his hair. At first there’s a sense – dreadful in retrospect – that the play’s narrative will see him remove these feminine signifiers and don male drag instead, implying that Jonty’s narrow-mindedness will win the day. It’s a relief to see the make-up stay on and it’s an intriguing decision by Leather and director Kat Bond that we never see him without the make-up. We can only wonder what he looks like when he goes to work, fitting in with his colleagues who presume he’s straight.
Like any good drag queen, Leather’s character is foul-mouthed but Leather is so warm, lyrical and congenial that it’s impossible not to root for him. Perhaps there is one too many narrative strands in Wasteman, but Leather ensures that there is not a wasted moment and each scene change is swift and the play never loses momentum.
Some plays can never find the right ending, but Wasteman has the perfect one. In fact, it has a few equally good ones. The curtain could come down at the end of any of the last few scenes. An embarrassment of endings, but Leather’s choice is camp commitment at its best,
Reviewed on 28 August 2022
The Camden Fringe runs from 1-28 August 2022
