When an unexpected call from a library derails the headliner of a Drag reading hour, self-described ‘drag thing’ Goody Prostate must scramble together a new act for a crowd of unruly children and their parents. Ryan Stewart’s upcoming Adelaide Fringe piece KINDER examines reactionary politics and what it means to grow up. We wanted to find out more about Goody and their journey, so we caught up with Ryan for a pixelated pint.

You can catch KINDER at the Studio Theatre @ Goodwood Theatre and Studios between the 27th February and 16th March at 21:00 (60 mins). Tickets are available via the Adelaide Fringe Online Box Office.

Jake: Hi Ryan, you describe ‘KINDER’ as an overdue examination of what it means to grow up, against a backdrop of reactionary politics surrounding queerness. Tell us what you mean by that, and what inspired you to explore the topic on stage.

Ryan: Hello!! What a wonderful question, thank you for asking.

We like to tell each other to grow up a lot. I get it, it’s a handy turn of phrase. Do I use it? Heck yeah. But it’s too simple, because I think what we’re really trying to articulate in those moments is I wouldn’t have done that; be more like me. And even though there are as many ways of living and reacting to the world as there are people who have existed, we try and make a lot of people – children especially – stick to the ones that works for us.

And so that’s how we’ve arrived at where we’re at now. Colliding with the infantilising and enduring grow up is a discourse around drag, bathrooms, books, and affirmative medical care that has exploded as of late. Discussions that are always tinged with a rhetoric of banning, exclusion, and I know better than you. And for the targets of these conversations, a whole litany of feelings have surfaced; frustration, anger, pain. So that’s where KINDER began for me.

Jake: Tell us about the central character in the piece, self-described ‘drag thing’ Goody Prostate, and how you developed them.

Ryan: Goody is a bit of a brat. Less in the Charli way (much to their chagrin), more in the way of like, if we had a Monstro Goody, it would be an amalgam of all the golden ticket winning kids in Willy Wonka (including Charlie – so I guess some type of Charli in the end?). Drag is so often associated with royal titles – as it should be, of course; queen, king etc. So if drag is godly ordained, then Goody is the genderless jester; a fool. I imagine someone – a noble, perhaps, in the throes of some rambunctious party at court, laying eyes upon Goody and asking, with an air of haughtiness, what is that…. thing?

And this thing, drag, is resistance. It can be the foil of oneself; a creation of a different self that perhaps we can’t reconcile with our day-to-day selves. Or maybe it is an extension of a self, an amplification that can manage the responsibilities of the thing on top of their own government-name identity. Sadly I don’t yet have the integrity for the latter, and so that is how Goody came to be. I articulate my own gender as an absence of, and Goody is the opposite; abundance, exaggeration – the clown. They come from the excesses of Weimar, from a time of a cultural spilling over, a radical acceptance of what could be; just before it all came crashing down. And so they give me the jester’s privilege to say the things I can’t quite articulate as Ryan.

Jake: What are you hoping the audience takes away from the piece at the end of it all, and what sort of experience are you hoping they’ll have? Tell us a little about what people can expect to think, feel, and see.

Ryan: Part of living in this world as we know it now means accepting the many stories we tell ourselves about how our lives should be lived. And these stories become embedded within us without our fully being aware of it; they become parts of the systems that are used to bring a sense of order and control to our life, to create social harmony, balance.

But we can hope for other ways of living, and many people do – and so mainly I hope that people come away from the hour we spend together feeling like they can be a little more open to hearing these sorts of stories. That they can imagine different futures, different systems, different ways of living that are a little more kind, a little more caring. And that they leave with a feeling that they are allowed to hope for something better than what we have now.

That may be too much of a tall order though. So, let’s just have a laugh together, and see where that goes. I can promise at least 3, maybe 4 laughs.

Jake: Tell us about your relationship with Adelaide and the Fringe – have you been before and how are you feeling about it all now we are so close?

Ryan: I’ve been fortunate enough to tour some works to Adelaide Fringes past as a producer, but not since prior to the pandemic, so I am just so incredibly excited to be returning once again this year – especially as a performer this time too.

At its heart, a Fringe should be a place where people can come to explore themselves, be challenged, and most of all leave entertained – and that’s what Adelaide manage to do year in, year out. As anxious I am to be getting into the hustle of it all (1423 shows??? get out…), I cannot wait to be allowed to once again properly explore, be challenged, and entertained – and hopefully provide some of that as well.

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?

Ryan: At my first opening night in Melbourne, a dear friend of mine gifted me with some Kinder Surprise eggs at the end of the show, and I realised I’d missed out on an almost perfect branding partnership. And just as Kinder Surprises are, drag artists are also trying to be banned by many legislative bodies in the US in the name of public safety.

So! A Kinder Surprise cocktail of course. There are many a recipe out there, but I think the best is probably the one that you come up with; gives it that real surprise element.

Do I encourage a binge of it? Well; just like Goody, I think it’s probably best consumed in moderation (but it will always bring the party).

You can catch KINDER at the Studio Theatre @ Goodwood Theatre and Studios between the 27th February and 16th March at 21:00 (60 mins). Tickets are available via the Adelaide Fringe Online Box Office.