February 2023
To the Contact Theatre to watch ‘Lady Bushra – Robbed’ as part of the Queer Contact Festival.
Lady Bushra is the perpetually 19 year old ‘bad girl from Bradford’ drag creation of British Asian comedian Amir and has been in existence for the last 2 years, partly as result of pandemic restrictions and a desire to have a creative career.
Shortlisted for the BBC new comedy award 2021, Lady Bushra has monthly sessions coming up at Band on the Wall in March and hosting drag Bingo at PLY most months of this year.
We hadn’t seen or heard of her before, so went with an open mind, prepared to be challenged, seeing a content warning on the promotional material.
The show started slowly but we soon worked out that we were going to be shown all the previous jobs that Bushra had done in the run up to her ‘fame and fortune’, a combination of projected video, audio and costume changes and props to illustrate the point.
Bushra was beautifully costumed in a glamorous sari with great hair and makeup, all very well observed.
The stories told during each of the different sections of the performance were at times amusing and a little perplexing as they seemed to take a long time to get to the point.
Delivery was very rapid at times and so was a little difficult to follow the humour, although the audience seemed to love it, with lots of cackling and plenty of audience interaction at all times.
There was also an occasional Ad Lib feel to it , which was charming, but did feel occasionally somewhat disjointed.
There were chuckles to be had, but we didn’t always ‘get’ some of the humour and there was further distraction from numerous audience members talking and leaving (and some returning) towards the last part of the performance.
We would have liked to understand more about the character and background before the performance as such, as it could have helped to appreciate the style and humour in the piece.
We certainly wanted to find out more after the evening and have noted the drag bingo and performances to come over the months.
Many thanks to Contact staff, particularly box office for sorting out the issue with tickets on the night and the charming FOH staff who were so helpful.
Contact Theatre is a very pleasant modern space and the large theatre has comfortable spacious seating. Plenty of room for socialising in the bar.
Christine Ince for Canal St Media