Joe Leather’s Wasteman is an excellent one-person present a couple of drag queen binman on the VAULT Festival
“One man’s treasure is another man’s trash”
Family folklore has it that I wished to be a binman however my massive sister intervened to inform me I used to be going to school. I could have been kneehigh to a grasshopper on the time however clearly the hi-vis vests and large vehicles had made their impression. The selection for author/performer Joe Leather wasn’t fairly the identical. Due to begin work in a jewellers, lockdown royally fucked that up and so with severely straitened choices, a refuse collector proved a way more dependable possibility. They’re additionally a drag queen on the facet.
With such life expertise handy, a one-person present was at all times within the offing and Wasteman is not any disappointment. A extremely amusing monologue that traces the journey of a younger Northern lad who makes use of the inspiration of a well-timed break-up to enter a drag contest, it performs on the juxtaposition of his day job as a refuse collector and in addition delves again into his private historical past to discover how queer lives are formed so considerably by expertise, and never at all times optimistic ones at that.
Leather possesses a vastly interesting stage presence and as his character attracts so clearly from private expertise, a profound authenticity sings out. There’s additionally one thing refreshing about seeing a number of the vulnerabilities behind the brashness of a drag persona. Director Kat Bond retains Leather in full warpaint all through, whilst sequinned robes are changed with hi-vis vests and work gear, a relentless reminder of the duelling identities that queer folks must wrangle in numerous elements of their lives.
Unafraid to go deeply private, Wasteman is stuffed with the little particulars that you could be or could not recognise personally, however rattling effectively that it’s lived expertise. As it touches on queer trauma, it does so in a way that’s delicate in addition to compelling and it’s steadily belly-achingly humorous. I’ll at all times have affection for a fellow North-Western voice however Leather has an irresistible heat that even a shakshuka-loving Southerner couldn’t deny. A 4.30am alarm although? Never for me!