
Life's a Drag
Life’s a Drag! or is Life Drag? U Penn’s Experimental Theatre Group Performs
Student-Written Drag Show that Questions the Nature of Cis and Transgender Performance.
Written by Gabriella Raffetto
Photos by Becka Terzakis
For their Winter 2024 production, iNtuitons Experimental Theatre group performed a student written and directed drag show that proved to be just as politically provocative as it was fabulously sexy. Written by Pandora Schoen and Declan Stecher, "Life’s a Drag" tests the boundaries of both theatre and drag through continuous reflections of gender performance, all the while keeping with the traditional zest and flair of drag shows. Under the production of Jordyn Harris and Rebekah Lee, "Life’s a Drag" came to life in Platt Performing House as a vivacious, interactive, and dazzling spectacle. The atmosphere at every performance was buzzing with excitement, audience and crew members alike dressed in drag. If this was a New York Times review for an off-broadway debut, I would advertise Schoen and Stecher’s work as “Brilliant and hilarious... sure to take the world by storm! For anyone seeking to stimulate gender politics while arousing more than just their funny bones.”
As a fellow writer, I couldn’t help but wonder about the inspiration for 'Life’s a Drag.' I decided to talk more with Writer and Director Pandora Schoen, whose vision pioneered this glamorous production. Sitting with our coffees on 40th and Locust, Pandora walked me through the infant stages of their creation. “I was in the Experimental Playwriting class with Brooke O’Harra my freshman year. I was going through stuff on campus where I had a lot of friends who knew I was non-binary, they all knew my pronouns (this was before I found my crowd) but they just did not listen to them. They constantly misgendered me.” Pandora’s frustration lay not only with their friends’ lack of respect, but also straight ignorance and hypocrisy regarding gender performances. “I was like, the thing I’m doing by presenting this way is the same as the thing you’re doing by presenting that way.” Pandora's perspective made me see 'Life’s a Drag' in a new light. The majority of the actors in the play were constantly changing roles and genders, throwing on wigs, sports jerseys, and high heels in crude demonstrations of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity.’ This constant identity swapping playfully deconstructs our preconceived notions of masculinity and femininity, one that primarily rests upon external factors, such as the way we dress, speak, and act. Pandora and I then talked about the flexibility available in women’s fashion while men are not granted such freedom. In modern Western society, women can wear anything, from baggy jeans to ball gowns, and still be seen as women. Yet at the same time, it’s still often seen as ‘gay’ or ‘queer’ for men to wear skirts, dresses, and fitted tops–clothes that have predominantly been worn by women. Pandora talked about the disconnect between performatively and identity while expressing the hypocrisy of cisgender performance. “It was very frustrating because watching people walk around in their sweatpants and sweatshirts or things like that–that is also gender performance, but people don’t talk about that.”
Destabilizing heteronormativity lies at the heart of Life’s a Drag. Pandora explained how they wanted to put cis people in drag, before realizing the inherent paradox to this idea. “I was like, wait no, cis people are in drag.” Soon, the foundation for a
meta-drag show took shape; a dystopia where every character is in drag without realizing, and yet people are still transphobic–sounds familiar, no? The experimental aspect lies in the show’s inherent dramatic irony, the audience watching every actor’s abrupt role change unfold before their eyes. The effect was both humorous and thought-provoking.
I asked Pandora why they thought "Life’s a Drag" was an important story and relevant to Penn’s Campus. They reflected on the struggle of creating a queer rom-com that doesn’t fall into a Hallmark storyline “where the two people happen to be the same gender and everyone’s ignoring the fact and acting like it’s a straight couple.” For Pandora, this doesn’t feel authentic. According to them, it is difficult to create silly rom-coms for the Queer community the same way one might create a straight silly rom-com “because there are things that affect people in queer relationships that never would come up in a straight relationship, incuding homophobia. One of the the brilliance of "Life’s a Drag" is its ability to pick apart heteronormative biases through satire and gender performance. Having cis- and trans actors together on stage dressed in various versions of ‘drag’ completely upends any fixed notion of gender. “Part of what I wanted to show with the campyness is that queerness bounces between this space of happy, fun 'oh my God pride!' and ‘oh my God!’ shit hits the fan and you remember suddenly you’re not just some silly person making your way through the world being yourself. You’re part of this system that is riddled with problems.”
"Life’s a Drag" offers us a brief reprieve from this system, one that allows us to imagine a world beyond gender restraints.