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SCMP Reporter

GERALDINE would rather be anything than a man . . . and she's only GBP8,000 and a whole lotta hormones away from achieving that wish. You guessed it, Geraldine is really a Gerald and we're in the world of 'trannies'.

  It's a world of sequins and bondage, leather and lace, squeals and tears, pain and pleasure, friends and frauds.

  The Third Sex is the apt title of this play written by Chowee Leow for the London Asian theatre company Ascendant. Chowee plays Lindsay - and he looks great in a wig and stockings.

  The play opens with a bang, a cabaret number and a raunchy three-some set the tone for this story about the life of two London working girls, except these girls are performers - drag queens and prostitutes.

  It's a seedy life with pin-striped punters and S&M freaks, closet homosexuals who like to pretend they're not really having sex with a man, according to Lindsay.

   She likes her life and the power she feels she has over the men that desire her. But her best friend and co-worker, Geraldine, thinks she's kidding herself. And she's right.

  Geraldine, who is saving up for the big cross-over op, is played by John Campbell, himself a cabaret artist whose stage name is Ebon-knee.

   His is a tortured character whose quips and bitchy comments conceal a sad and lonely person looking for love and acceptance in a world where people like herself are classed first as freaks and as people a distant second.

  In an attempt to have a 'normal' life, Lindsay becomes the kept mistress of the Tory party's chief whip, played to great effect by Miles Harrison, himself a cabaret star in real life. But she misses her old life and finds her new one of shopping and waiting for her man to visit tedious.

  She also misses her boyfriend, but he's been cheating on her with other drag queens and hurt her feelings horribly because he couldn't accept her for what she really was, a man.

  This character she has so carefully created has become her meal ticket and her curse - it's the painted and pampering Lindsay the men in her life want, not some guy who takes off his wig and make-up before climbing into bed.

  But, as they say, the show must go on, and what else would she and Geraldine do anyway, there's no way they'd get a job as sales girls for Marks and Spencers.

  This play is a fine and moving lesson for us all - it's about acceptance really, and the message is cleverly woven into a fun, titillating and often sad story by Chowee.

   And while the characters are well portrayed by all the actors, my only criticism is that it had an under-rehearsed feel to it, an air of amateurism that detracted from its impact.

    The Third Sex, Ascendant Theatre Co, Fringe Studio, until January 15 



Boys will be girls