An Intro Into The Art Of Drag Performance Workshop

About us

Drag queen and party princess Topsie Redfern is getting back to her roots. Her musical roots, her grey roots, and her family roots; especially her Great Grandmother Winifred, who ran away from her own wealthy roots with an Irish Traveller, eventually becoming renowned fairground fortune teller Madam Olga.

Topsie teams up with her own alter ego, Nathan Kiley, to explore their shared roots, and their shared route from West End star to drag artist, to both, to... who knows what next…? Topsie invites you to join her on a journey of queer self-acceptance, to stare into her Crystal Balls and muse on what has been, and wonder at what is to come.

More about the show....

Once upon a time there was a house, in the house there was an attic,
in the attic there was a box, and in the box there was a crystal ball.
In the house there lived a woman who longed for a child, but she couldn't conceive.
She wished and wished on the crystal ball: she had a crystal ball in the attic because her grandmother was a witch.
She told the crystal ball that, if she was given a child, she didn't mind if it was a boy or a girl, as long as it was shiny.
Just when all hope seemed lost, she gave birth to a shiny little girly boy.
She named him after a Hebrew prophet whose name meant gift: Nathan.

When the histories of your communities are missing from the history books, how do you keep those memories alive? And how do the weight of those memories affect who we are today?
As a queer kid growing up in the North of England in the 80s, Nathan actually did have a crystal ball in his attic, and he did stare into it a lot. Before he had learned enough about the world to allow him to embark on a journey of queer self-acceptance, Nathan didn't have a clue in hell what to do with his gift of shininess. Because where he was from, being shiny could get you into trouble.

And so Nathan would hide in the attic, drape himself in the old stage costumes of his mother, and those of his fortune-teller great-grandmother, and stare into that crystal ball wondering why he was so different and what would become of his life.

It didn't take a prophet to guess that Nathan would grow up to be a drag queen: Miss Topsie Redfern. Topsie is a regular and popular fixture in some of the UK's most celebrated cabaret venues, with regular international appearances.
She is also a popular host of Drag Queen Storytime Sessions, reading to families and young people in schools and libraries throughout the UK.

Years later, as a young actor, making his West End debut as Mary Sunshine in Chicago, Nathan's mother gave him a first night gift: the crystal ball he had been obsessed with as a kid. In his dressing room, he started to research its owner; his great-grandmother Winifred Kiely, born in 1905 to a respectable middle-class family in Bristol. Rejected by her parents after falling pregnant aged 14 to an Irish traveller more than double her age, she was forced to start her life afresh. She birthed 11 living children in a caravan 8ft wide and 12ft long, while working the fairs as the hugely renowned Madame Olga. In the 1930s and 40s, Olga regularly told the fortunes of Alan Turing, Lady Astor and members of the War Cabinet. And in the year that Turing -marginalised and vilified for his homosexuality in his lifetime - is set to appear on the £50 note, this connection through the ages becomes especially poignant.

Crystal Balls is the story of Nathan's discovery of his Irish Traveller heritage, through the lens of the memories of his Great Grandmother's extraordinary life. It uses the traditions of Irish storytelling and drag cabaret to explore the story of Winifred Kiely, and how this story intersects with the hidden histories of marginalised communities in their written and the unwritten forms: exploring the codes of silenced peoples (predominantly queer history and Traveller history) - and how those codes, from dress codes like hanky codes and garlanding, to linguistic ones like Shelta and Polari, create safety – but also build barriers.

Nathan's work over the past few years with Drag Queen Storytime - dragqueenstorytime.com - has centred around breaking down barriers and misconceptions around feminine queer men, but this has faced several backlashes, some of them involving violent threats. Part of the creative team's drive for making this show comes from exploring how we can take pride in the parts of ourselves - and our cultural histories – that previous generations would have hidden, and to become role models, especially to young people, safely and proudly.

Show Dates
Friday 17 September 7:30pm
Saturday 18 September 7:30pm


'Intro To The Art Of Drag Performance' workshop

Nathan (Topsie) and Sarah Chew (Crystal Balls Director & Co-Writer) will be running a Pay What You Decide 'Intro To The Art Of Drag Performance' workshop at Barbican Theatre on Thursday 16 September (ages 15+) They'll be giving advice, tips of the trade and performance techniques to established, emerging or curious drag queens, kings and everyone in between. You'll also have the chance to show off your own 'act' (however advanced it is) Info/book a place: https://barbicantheatre.co.uk/whats-on/intro-to-the-art-of-drag-workshop/

It is held in person at Barbican Theatre, where strict health and safety for social distancing is in place. There is opportunity to share your act, ask questions and get involved as much as you like but this is not mandatory.

Barbican Theatre is a safe space - safe to be who you are, regardless of race, class, religion, country of origin, immigration status, (dis)ability, age, gender, identity, or sexual orientation.