Agit-Pop!

It was just a small listing in the What’s Happening Waterloo newsletter:

Agit-Pop! Musical Meditations on the Pre-Post-Apocalypse

Intriguing.

Reading further:

Superstar drag comedienne Pearle Harbour performs her doomsday cabaret. Laughs & tears through the headlines, and hits from David Bowie, to Britney Spears. A hilarious and heartbreaking cabaret for the end times.
Agit-Pop! reimagines the hits of Bowie, Britney, Judy Garland, Tom Waits and more as you’ve never heard them before.

A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to The Healing of the Seven Generations.

The Registry Theatre

Sounded right up my alley, really. Drag. Doom. Pop.

Jean, ever the trooper, agreed to come along.

As we approached the door, I noticed that all the theatre staff were masked, which was refreshing. Then the man a bit ahead of us in line turned around to go back out, stating “I’ll just go get the mask in my car!” Huh. Then I noticed the “Please wear a mask for this performance” sign. Double huh! Hadn’t seen one of those in many a moon!

Policy was not strictly enforced, so some people remained unmasked. But, I’d say a good 90% to 95% went along with it. Peer pressure, eh. Can also be a force for good!

But. On with the show.

Though it’s not the easiest to describe, as I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Admittedly, I don’t go to a ton of drag shows regardless, but have seen a few, and I don’t think this was a typical one of those.

Pearle Harbour, accompanied by a single musician who can play multiple instruments, discusses the various challenges and problems facing our world. The need for Indigenous reconciliation. The climate crisis. The ongoing Covid epidemic. Anti-immigration sentiments.

And interspersed it with pop music, not as a distraction, but as a commentary.

5 years. That’s all we’ve got.

My loneliness is killing me.

There’s a land I dream of… Somewhere, over the rainbow

I think I just wasn’t made for these times…

But it was still drag. So it was not all po-faced. There was bawdiness, there were jokes, there was a whole lot of audience engagement and participation. A tragicomedienne, she is called, and that sounds about right.

Given all the interaction, Jean enjoyed the evening as much as I did. We did the wave—the Covid wave! We discussed the etymology of agit prop. We shared guilty pleasures. We stood en masse to do the duck and cover. To a background of Cold War era cartoons (some of which are quite something).

Bit late to tell you this now, but she also play Waterford and Fergus. Then she’s moving on to other provinces (and bigger cities—Montreal, Calgary).

Poignant and oddly healing

Now Magazine

Sounds about right to me.