ARCHIVE is not your typical drag show — and not just because it actually starts on time.
It begins with four painted faces floating on a transparent screen. Disembodied in blackness, they slowly shift through a range of emotions — joy, sadness, confusion, anger, fear — until drifting closer into an amorphous blob of overlapping features.
This pre-show display (serving part Bohemian Rhapsody, part final shot of Pearl) hypnotically draws the audience into the world of the Darlings' one-hour show, while foreshadowing its themes of identity and intimacy.
The floating faces are, of course, the Darlings themselves, composed of local multidisciplinary non-binary drag artists Continental Breakfast, Maiden China, Rose Butch and PM. While you may have seen these performers lip-sync their hearts out at your drag show of choice (including here at UBC!), you probably haven’t seen them quite like this before.
In ARCHIVE, the Darlings partner with Chimerik 似不像 Collective to take the art of drag to new experimental and technical heights, with new, reworked and reimagined pieces. The show combines dance, storytelling, performance art, light shows, projections and holograms into an equally dazzling and melancholic retrospection on the last five years of the group and their Queer coming-of-age stories. The most impressive feature is the transparent screen used throughout much of the show, which plays projected images while still leaving the performers behind visible. The screen creates a dream-like effect that the Darlings take full advantage of.
Rose Butch slow-dances with holographic figures, Maiden China playfully peeks from behind the window of a childlike drawing and Continental Breakfast and PM dance in unison behind their own distorted outlines.
Each tableau plays with memories and connections between the performers, expertly woven into a nostalgic tapestry of performances. The Darlings communicate these connections in intimate scenes, like cutting each other’s nails, feeding each other the flesh of an orange and delicately undressing each other. These moments reflect how Queer and Trans people nurture each other and form chosen families where traditional supports fall short.
In another piece that recurs throughout the show, the Darlings read memories from journals — a childhood trip to the beach, trying on a binder for the first time, losing their parents' car while high on molly. The audience at first assumes each memory is the reader’s own, until slowly realizing they are actually reading snippets from each other’s lives, highlighting both the uniqueness and universality of Queer experiences.
The Birdhouse, the newest venture of Queer-and-Trans-run Eastside Studios, is an intimate and eclectic venue. While smaller than its predecessor the Warehouse (RIP), the Birdhouse offers the same artsy Queer charm (and worry not, there are still plenty of disco balls).
A room to the side of the performance space is set up as a museum of memories that attendees were free to peruse before and after the show. Projectors and TVs play some of the Darlings’ past works, including their COVID offerings, Quarantine I and Quarantine II. Couches recognizable from these quarantine projects, and presumably from the Darlings' own homes, are staged around the room. Personal photos, newspaper clippings and handwritten notes hang from strings, inviting vertically challenged visitors like myself onto our tiptoes for closer inspection.
At a time when Trans rights are under attack, it’s crucial that we support art that challenges gender binaries and centres Trans expression. It’s unknown whether ARCHIVE in the form I saw on June 16 will ever be performed again, but future Darlings shows are sure to offer a similarly inventive and immersive experience that you won’t want to miss.