Drag queens are everywhere: in fiction, reality TV, documentaries, on social networks and even in pubs or awareness campaigns. The same cannot be said of drag kings, still reduced to darkness and to the margins. Creation Rock Bière: The Documentary, by Mélodie Noël Rousseau and Geneviève Labelle, intends to reveal the underside of this little-known art by throwing a benevolent light on an environment that is too often restricted to its clichés.
The genesis of this documentary play dates back to 2018. “We knew a little about the world of drag queens, and we questioned ourselves about that of drag kings” to quickly see that “it was really very hard to find in Quebec ”, remembers Geneviève Labelle, director of Rock Bière: The Documentary. Initially, the two accomplices simply wanted to make it the subject of a play for their company Pleurer Dans’Douche. “Finally, we got caught up in the game, and we literally fell in love with this art”, continues the one who is now called RV Metal on stage.
Rock Bière: The Documentary tells the personal story of Mélodie’s male alter ego, Rock Bière. With humor and a touch of well-assumed commitment, this documentary play seeks to lift the veil on an unknown world while changing mentalities. The project has been matured for a long time, the two actresses performing on the Quebec stages for three years now, whether at Mado, at the Cocktail Bar, via Le Drague in Quebec or even L’Otre zone in Sherbrooke. With a success that amazes them themselves. “Today, the environment has really changed. If we accepted all the contracts to do drag, it would be almost a full time job! », Surprised Geneviève Labelle.
Outside, the clichés!
From the start, the two artists had the reflex to take videos of their performance in order to document their daily life in anticipation of the documentary which is presented these days at the Espace Libre Theater. Integrated and recognized by the community, Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau testify to their experiences on a very intimate note. “We are not an external eye, it’s what we experience, it’s autobiographical,” explains Mélodie Noël Rousseau. Through this show, above all, we literally discover how it became Rock Bière.
“Being Rock is more than just dragging,” she explains. As an actress, it brought a whole lot of new colors to my game, but [ça a aussi développé] my personal confidence in my everyday life, and my confidence with the public. ”It is precisely this complexity of the art of drag, where everything is intertwined, that the two young women wanted to highlight before. “It is an art considered less noble, so it is the fun to be able to show people all the beauty behind [les artifices], out of the clichés, ”she continues.
Rock Bière: The Documentary also offers a place to the friends of Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau. The latter have in fact interviewed at length, over a period of several months, about fifteen personalities from the field who testify to their reality. “The whole forms a great discussion on our community and its issues,” explains Geneviève Labelle. It includes Mado Lamotte, Rita Baga, Will Charmer and Nat King Pole, one of the first drag kings in Quebec, who recently retired.
Finally, the two artists wanted to use the stage to trace the history of the kings. At 19e century, they were called male impersonators. It was not until the 1980s that the term drag king appeared. “We wanted to understand why they were invisible for so long,” says Geneviève Labelle. An invisibility that still lasts, moreover, notes Mélodie Noël Rousseau. “Some things are still problematic in the industry, but you have to persevere to change that. “
A place to take
And not be satisfied with chasing a few prejudices along the way, she insists. We must tackle head-on the causes of the under-representation of drag kings, continues Geneviève Labelle. “The message is to be open to diversity because it is beautiful and rich. If no one makes the effort, there will be no diversity. “
As for the question of the place of women in the community, it still remains to be taken. “It’s frustrating to be megenerated on stage, but they have been so used to speaking feminine for years, we can understand that it still takes time for that to change,” she concedes. “We wonder about the burden of being a woman in the community and what space we can be granted on the stage. Some of the speakers evoke more fluidity or non-binarity. We, the reality we want to wear is that of women, ”she says.
Moreover, to take concrete action, their company Pleurer Dans’Douche, founded in 2016, only works with female employees and non-binary people. Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau also considered offering cultural mediation around the show. However, they haven’t, for now at least, had the time to put this idea in motion. “We could go to schools, arrive with lots of drag clothes and find their alter ego with young people, understand what they would like to explore, how far they would like to go,” says Geneviève Labelle, fascinated.
Here again, it is through humor that Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau wish to convey their messages. The show begins with a cabaret, a “big drag show” where they want the audience to shout, sing songs and have fun. “Little by little, things get more and more serious, we deconstruct Rock Bière, we come back more intimately to the artist”, to his weaknesses, his strengths, his singularity, confides Mélodie Noël Rousseau. But always with a smile, specifies Geneviève. “Our shows are very nonos, irreverent. We like it to go first in humor and lightness to then broach the subject crunchy “.