Jake Mace
The Hairy Godmothers breathed new life into old fairy tales with their show Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody at Prague Fringe. We caught up with the team behind the adult fantasies and fairytale follies to learn all about the process of taking beloved childhood stories and shaking them up for an adult audience. Jae West plays ‘The Hero’ in the piece, and I caught up with them for a pixelated pint to talk all things parody, Prague and poison apples.
Performances of Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody have now concluded at Prague Fringe – catch up with the gang online for future performances.
Jake: Hi Jae! Your show promises to “shatter all our childhood dreams” – is that a bit tongue in cheek or what are you hoping the audience take away from the show?
Jae: We love playing with words (expect some puns in the show!). What we are trying to comment on is the influence of childhood movies on our lives. We take fairytale favourites and change them up to explore modern day themes, including adult themes, to make it relevant to modern day life!
Jake: Tell us a little about the Drag elements of the show – you say we will see some familiar characters and discover new sides of them. What can we expect?
Jae: The show is a nostalgic musical comedy that involves live singing, lots of laughs, cheeky themes, and a whole heap of fun. It follows a hero trying to find their ‘one true love’, guided by The Hairy Godmother you meet some of your fairy-tale favourites like never seen before. We play with gender norms, you won’t just see men dressed as women but a whole array of gender-expressing diversity, all with colourful make-up and costumes!
Jake: Tell us about your process of parodying something as iconic and popular as you are – how did you get to where you are with the piece?
Jae: Honestly, this is our Fairytale. We never knew the show was going to get so popular, we were just a group of friends getting together to create for fun. We are all passionate about the topics that we talk about and audiences have really resonated with the messaging that we put out there. We aim to educate through entertainment, so expect to have a laugh but also contemplate some big ideas and concepts.
Jake: Tell us about Prague Fringe and what you got from the experience!
Jae: There are many new faces, places, and experiences to pursue. We’re always excited to meet everyone as we typically spend time with audience members after the show to see what they liked and what didn’t land. We find it all interesting so we’re just excited to learn and be someone completely new!
Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Jae: We’d be something classic with a twist. Alcoholic because we are adult themed! Let’s go strawberry mimosa, pink is our colour and flavour, and the champagne is the bubbles of fun and light playfulness.
Phoebe Bakker
