The Death of a Drag Queen

The Death of a Drag Queen and other stories
By Julian Halls
Published by Ginninderra Press
ISBN 1 74027 219 6

Not everyone within these pages is a drag queen. Not every one is gay, though the main characters in each short story definitely (or defiantly, or hesitatingly) are. Having said that, be prepared for a wide gamut of situations that really have very little to do with gayness (if there is such a distinction), but rather more with love, loving, fear of growing old and other emotions. Julian Halls is a very talented writer and his stories have both pace and pathos. He has mined many autobiographical memories, which gives an intensity to the stories themselves, but does so in ways that are witty, reflective, and above all, entertaining.

That Julian Halls has the background to be a good writer can be seen in his bio: he completed a Playwright’s Course at NIDA in 1973, and went on to write over 40 hours of television drama, as well as plays for both radio and the stage. He now lives in Hobart, where he gained a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Tasmania. Sydney and Tasmanian locations give an interesting verisimilitude. It is, however, his descriptive powers that make the tales really come to life:

Carl was dressed as a woman. he wore a blonde beehive wig, silver drop earrings, a long red dress, red high heels and a red feather boa. He had long false eyelashes and wore a lot of mascara and red lipstick.

‘Carl.’

‘Carla. It’s Carla, darling.’

Ross did not know what to say. He did not like to see Carl dressed as a woman. If a man only liked other men and was not atracted to women, why would they want to get dressed up as a woman? It didn’t make sense.

‘Come, darling,’ Carla leant forward. ‘A little kiss on the cheek for your big sister.’

After all the romantic thoughts he had harboured about Carl and a life they might share together, he was now faced with a travesty he found incomprehensible.”

Then, the father:

’I’ve nothing against the homosexual. That sort of practice has been going on since the year dot. I’ve worked with many of them…Good blokes, most of them.

‘I remember there was one chap we used to tease a bit. We used to say, ‘Ah, Teddy. There was a policeman in asking after you the other day.

‘The look on his face! That used to to quieten him down a bit.’

Ross turned away from his father…He felt sickened. He did not know what to say any more. He would not tell his father that he was gay.

And there’s the improbable guy next door, whom Elspeth, saddled with a cranky pedantic conformist husband, first sees as a tall bald apparition wearing a white cowboy outfit sparkling with glitter, rounded buttocks showing through his seat-less pants.

Theirs is the story of how they became friends: “In a world of orderly suburbia, dulled to a grey shadow of respectability, here was someone who offered variety.”

Just as Julian Halls does in every page. Patsy Hollis

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