Midnight at the Palace is a dazzling, confusing, loud, and camp show, and I am still not entirely certain of what I witnessed.
Midnight at the Palace tells the true story of the Cockettes, a drag theatre ensemble in the late 1960s in San Francisco. Narrator Pat (Baylie Carson) hitchhikes to San Francisco and is taken in by a motley crew of hippies and drag queens. It features characters such as Hibiscus, the subject of the famous “flower power” photograph, and Sylvester, who became a star of the disco scene. Ultimately, our characters are a band of misfits united by the cultural movement of free love, and a great many drugs.
The music in this show was astounding; every single song was catchy, cheeky, and felt as if it belonged on a West End stage. Brandon James Gwinn is the genius writer of the music and lyrics, which are sonically masterful and hilarious in equal measure.
Everything about the set and costumes was extremely bright and full of character. It is purposefully dizzying and confusing, and stylistically reflects the psychedelic-fuelled lives of its characters. Paper dresses, Truman Capote cut-outs, and dildos – need I say more?
The cast is also brilliantly talented, and the energy that they maintain throughout drives the show forwards. I would have liked to see a little more exploration of some of the characters, who became essentially an ensemble, but every actor gave a fabulously committed, over-the-top performance.
Midnight at the Palace captures something very specific about rebellion and counterculture: the sheer pointlessness of it all. The play barely has a plot; storylines are picked up and put down quickly, and it feels as if so much is left unsaid. But that all feels incredibly purposeful. The disorientation of the audience, alongside the fast pace and the extreme flamboyance, immerses us further in the world of the Cockettes.
Subversive, gender-bending, and completely bonkers, Midnight at the Palace is the exact type of insanity that the Fringe exists for, and is simply a ball of a time.
Midnight at the Palace is running until 24 August (not 12, not 19) at Big Yin at Gilded Balloon Patter House.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Sing Out, Louise! Productions, provided to The Student as press material.