Considering its sole character is a blonde-wigged drag queen with fishbowls for tits, you may be surprised to learn that ‘I Am Not Myself These Days’ isn’t a comedy. Written and performed by Tom Stuart, it’s an adaptation of the autobiography of Josh Kilmer-Purcell – aka Aquadisiac – whose experience of the 1990s New York drag scene plays out like a particularly bleak domestic abuse drama, albeit one interspersed by raunchily performed show tunes. The show centres around Josh’s relationship with a crack-addicted sex worker, the toxicity of which makes Josh’s own blatant alcoholism seem like a mild inconvenience by comparison.
Stuart delivers a committed, brutally physical performance, hurling himself across the stage as the show’s tightly wound vignettes ricochet from from seedy clubs to strangers’ apartments to sex parties – all of this in seven-inch stilettos. Multi-character exchanges are delivered with skill and at a frenetic pace that’s perfectly suited to recalling a hedonistic period of heavy drinking, drug-taking, puking and shitting glitter.
So while cheeky cabaret charm is all but absent from ‘I Am Not Myself These Days’, by the end it’s clear that this is entirely the point – with the camp gags and double entendres stripped out, it’s easier to see the vulnerability and the darkness beneath Aquadisiac’s false lashes and novelty knockers.