Above: They Will Be Kings plays at The Loading Dock Theatre until Feb 21. Featured image – the Kings take the stage, photo: Jessica Hromas.
The Kings push us around all night in this clever masc mash-up of a live show. It is just what we need.
They grab our attention, force us outside our comfort zone and laugh at themselves. They highlight our need to know more about drag kings in this country. They slap us stupid with arty, honest storytelling.
The foursome tackle the meaning of masc, slamming age-old stereotypes cheekily, joyously and intelligently. Fears for gender elasticity, individual style and necessary adventure are sent packing during this event.
Written by Kaz Therese (theatre maker and artistic director of Werewolf) with Danica Lani (aka drag king Dario di Bello) and in collaboration with Dario’s three kindred performers, this wise, high energy, no-holds-barred tutorial fills in the gaps in Aussie queer performance and identity history.
Ours is a history in this area which has been top-heavy with drag queens, failing to explore the nuances of trans, trans-masc and drag king cabaret or the inspiring, strong theatre of life going on behind the on-stage personas.
A piece that first showed its fun, earnest, lovable face at Qtopia’s Loading Dock Theatre during the 2025 Mardi Gras season, the Kings are back for a return season. With spot shows, stand-up comedy-ish segments, physicality, personal revelations, bananas, beards, upper binding, electric violin, NSYNC, sport, lip syncing and an intra-cast love story, this is a full entertainment, and the seventy-five minutes rocket by.
In a hectic prologue from the four performers (Becks Blake – ‘Jim Junkie’, Chris McCallister – ‘Chase Cox’, Angel Tan – ‘Fine China’ and their mentor/drag-king-captain Danica Lani – ‘Dario di Bell0’ ) dare us to name even a half-handful of local drag kings. Hard to do, shamefully.
Above: drag kings Case Cox and Dario di Bello.
It is quickly obvious that this history and awareness of the drag king status quo in our country needs further attention. By the end of this show, with a range of topics dicussed, our senses, imaginations and hunger for the cast’s special kind of slick swagger are satiated.
The quality, hilarious and at times super -endearing or heart-breaking, dead-serious sharing has us by the sensitive bits, realising that the drag king voice is an expressive and safe one that we need more of on our rainbow stages, in our streets, clubs and in our queer hearts.
Concepts such as marriage (here shown in a functional and beautiful union between this cast’s kings Chase Cox and Dario di Bello), pursuits ranging from soccer to childbirth (Jim Junkie), masc flavours as absorbed from the family tree (Fine China in an exquisite electric violin and voice-over segment) and a perfect, rapid-fire comedic unpacking of that pronoun debate (Chase Cox) are special journeys shared in between spot show scenes and ensemble song and dance breakouts.
Above: Co-creator and director Kaz Therese with the They Will be Kings cast. Photo credit: Tanja Bruckner.
The pace of this returning theatrical fave and the infectious, varied timbre of the cast’s keen cultural and personality mix is refreshing. The integrity bursting out of the personal profiles and performances has an instant fallout of bravery, acceptance and big bro encouragement of our infant exposure to the drag king vibe.
The piece’s power and this crew’s joint delivery sees bravery fitted out with humour, with the well-chosen, nicely written material being touching and necessary.
Our Sydney queer and non-queer scenes-both on and off the traditional stage will both benefit from the explanations, display and the understanding demanded here. This is a multilayered romp, celebrating trans and gender diverse talent and thoughtfulness.
It is also lots of fun. They will Be Kings kicks goals and kicks considerable arse as it kicks off Qtopia’s always inimitably relevant Mardi Gras show season.
They Will Be Kings is at The Loading Dock Theatre until Feb 21. For tickets, visit: https://tickets.qtopiasydney.com.au/Events/THEY-WILL-BE-KINGS
