My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) review: A joyous outsider tale is a must-see
My Son’s A Queer review and star rating: ★★★★★
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room: Rob Madge’s autobiographical show about his life growing up as a queer outsider is intensely joyous, and required viewing for queers and their allies. (And most importantly, required viewing for the people who wouldn’t think to book a show with a title like this.)
It’s a hysterical, relatable 75-minute whizz through Madge’s childhood growing up in the early noughties when teachers called them out for the “dramatic” way they looked at other students. (Madge uses they/them pronouns.) But it was also the era when Madge flew around their living room, playing characters like Peter Pan and Cinderella, in make-believe shows they’d stage with their family.
It’s a familiar format, and there will be a dozen shows at the Fringe this year doing the same kind of thing, but Madge’s talents for singing (they were in Les Miserables as a 9-year-old) and their immense likability take My Son’s A Queer to the next level: it’s an absolute joy that never loses pace. One minute Madge is pulling out old wooden props from the miniature theatre their grandparents adorably made them as a child, the next they’re wearing a fabulous Arial dress from The Little Mermaid complete with tale and restaging a ditty last seen in their family home in 2001.
It’s lucky Madge has such a spectacular – and heart-warming – collection of home videos from the era to back up their story, which are displayed hugely behind them on a screen. They’re engrossing and take up a fair amount of the run time.
Another pertinent image was of Madge sitting, aged perhaps one or two, next to a football their dad had bought them that they refused to play with. Madge’s experience as a queer outsider growing up is relatable to anyone who felt different at school. Anyone who felt a spike in anxiety whenever the football went anywhere near them. But it never gets bogged down in the sadness. A must-see.
My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) plays at the Ambassador’s Theatre until 1 April
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