Review: Polly & Esther

There’s nothing better than a punny drag queen name and surely Polly & Esther takes the biscuit for a duo moniker. Hailing from Cardiff and brought up to the Fringe by the Wales in Edinburgh scheme, the two drag queens guide us through a campy cabaret about friendship, pinkwashing, imbued with real-life zest. 

Polly & Esther first came together as performers in 2021 – Polly was performing as a successful drag queen while Esther had been in a one-person show out of drag. These differences in their careers are explored in the show and the dynamics that arise from coming together for this show. It is one of the manners in which this show is elevated from just another drag cabaret to one that creates dramatic tension that rolls the narrative along.

But to the plot of the show, which sees Polly the seasoned performer and Esther the newly birthed drag queen realise their advantage as a duo to create an act that delights the masses. This includes the show’s real life audience and the fictional industrial overlord ‘Mulk’, a drink that wants to use them in the ad campaign. The togetherness of the two performers is really the high point of the show, the songs they perform (many of them original) are grand and a real dynamic display of the harmonies and energy they bring out of each other. They sing and perform amazingly together – on the flip side sometimes their solo songs and moments on stage are not as strong. They really are best as a pair.

The addition of an industrial overlord making use of their talent is a great narrative device, if perhaps a little insensitive sometimes. The duo’s use of the protest slogan ‘No pride in Mulk’ can inadvertently strike the wrong tone in the wake of similar slogans that have been used with the events in Gaza. But you can tell that Polly and Esther’s hearts are in the right place as they meld their comedic ability with their narrative of how companies monopolise queer representation in today’s world.