George and the Drag Queen

In a time when tensions around immigration run high in rural communities, Pipeline Theatre grasps the issue in its own inimitable way – finding the funny, the weird and the wonderful.

Maddy has a story to tell: a former St. John Ambulance volunteer, she recollects the strange encounter she once witnessed between George, a fellow volunteer, and Usman, a refugee, at a village summer fete.

George and Maddy are a frequent double-act at such events. George – bluff, ex military, a fount of old-school, wise-cracking banter (and St. John Ambulance trivia), now close to retirement, and a self-appointed mentor to Maddy – asthmatic, unlucky in love, but with more than enough wit to outsmart George. They make a sweet, if nerdy, team.

The fete is what you’d expect: outsized veg, primary school art display, scruffiest dog competition, rosettes, cream teas, bunting. An out-of-time vision of England; a safe harbour, where the roiling seas of division and desperation shouldn’t intrude. Bar the odd wasp sting, George and Maddy are expecting a quiet day. Except – half an hour before kick-off, a stranger appears in their gazebo. This is Usman – cheerful, gentle, quiet-spoken. Apparently the tent has been allocated to him as a makeshift dressing room. For his ‘Special Performance’. So far, so unexpected. But then it gets weirder: it turns out Usman and George know each other from a former, almost unrecognisable life.