It’s always a pleasure to chat with drag icon Divina de Campo, who graced our screens back in 2019 as part of the Season 1 cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. She’s gone on to have success in the music charts, with The Frock Destroyers scoring a UK Top 40 single ‘Break Up (Bye Bye)’ and she’s appeared in many a musical and pantomime over the years since the show aired. GAY TIMES recently caught up with Divina as she prepares to tour her new show, I Do Think.
One of the joys of doing interviews via Zoom is getting a little snapshot into the day-to-day realities of interviewees. Divina appears to be in a room at a well-known budget hotel brand. “I’m in Staines! The glamour of the Travelodge, darling!” Divina cackles. The drag world is a glamorous place indeed! So what’s happening in Staines today? “Well what’s happening in Staines at the moment is, I’m sat looking at a car park and a Smyths Toys Superstore. Oh, and my room has a leaky toilet. So I’m just enjoying myself and having a lovely time, experiencing all the sights and smells!”
The show is called I Do Think – what’s it about? “Well, you reach a certain age and there are things that you’ve learnt about the world, things that you take as read because you got brought up a certain way… and then you think about these things and you go – that’s not really how the world works, is it? That’s just a story that we told ourselves to make everything easy, and it’s not actually true. So it’s very much about the experiences of life and the things that we all learn and experience as we get older.”
“Especially as a little queer!” Divina laughs. “You’re told from a really young age that everything around you – that the only people who are relevant on the gay scene are those people who are 22 and still have a 22 inch waist!” Divina jokes. Not sure I ever had one of those, to be honest! “Well I tried but it was never quite there! Back then, when I was in my 20s that was not how the gay scene was. It was filled with people right the way from 18 all the way to 80. I think there’s a disconnect between that and the generation now. It’s also about how we have to be a bit kinder to each other, a bit more thoughtful.”
That’s so nice to hear and such a great message – I think we all need a bit more of that. “It doesn’t mean that I’m actually going to be that in the show,” Divina adds, with a wry laugh.
You’ve told me about the inspiration and the key themes, but what sort of show is it going to be? Comedy? Cabaret? Musical? All of the above? “It’s a comedy show with music – so it’s me singing, obviously, because that’s what I do! Most people would rather not see me but that’s unfortunately the premise of being in a show, is that I will be visible. Generally I sing, there’s a big mix of different music and styles, lots of different inspirations and rewrites, some classics, singalongs.”
“My stuff is very much about passive audience participation,” Divina continues, “so it’s rare that I’m going to drag somebody up on stage – so don’t worry about that, you won’t be pulled up – but you will be required to be a part of the show, because that’s how cabaret works! You know, you are the other element of the show, as an audience member.” That sounds like a good level of audience participation – we don’t all necessarily love the spotlight but it’s nice to feel involved! “Exactly! And we’re going to have a jolly time all together. It’s a moment for you to forget the world and have a good laugh about all of the people that we all hate!” Divina chuckles.
GAY TIMES readers will know you from The Frock Destroyers – will we hear some of that, or is it covers, or a mix? “It’s a mix of stuff. It’s a bit… not quite the same league, obviously! – but Celine has to sing ‘My Heart Will Go On’, so there has to be some Frock Destroyers stuff in there, and then there’s also a couple of originals thrown in, it’s a big eclectic mix. I do it like a wedding, so there’s something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue… usually quite a lot of blue!”
I spotted on your tour poster the quote from journalist Dan Wootton about being ‘woke trash’. I see the word ‘woke’ as a badge of honour… what do you make of that quote? “I’m very much of the Kathy Burke school of thinking that ‘woke’ just means you’re not a wanker!” Divina laughs. “People like Dan, well, let’s forgive them for their sins, for they know not what they do. When he wrote that, I had done a piece for the BBC, for Bitesize, for parents on how to support their kids in lockdown. And because he did this I got this huge slew of absolute vitriol in my inbox, people telling me to kill myself, that I’m a paedophile, that I’m a nonce, they know where I live, they’re going to kill my dog, all this kind of stuff.”
It’s horrendous to hear that happened, but I’m very glad to hear that you’ve pushed back against it. “Oh really I’m not bothered, I had all that trauma when I was a child, darling – I’m fine with it!” Divina adds. “Unfortunately, we’re living in these times right now where… this morning, I was watching a TikTok from a guy who’s in There You Go Again, the Dolly Parton musical. He’s talking about, nearly every night, there’s somebody shouting homophobic slurs from the audience because they came to watch a Dolly Parton show… and they didn’t think there might be some gay people in it?! We’re living in a time where these people are so emboldened, they’re so deluded, they’ve completely lost touch with reality.”
It’s good that this behaviour is being called out, although of course it would be better if it didn’t happen at all. “All it took was for Dan to write this about me in a newspaper. I’ve never met him and we don’t know each other. I sent him a message about the impact on Facebook – because, you know, he’s old, so he won’t have TikTok or anything – but he hasn’t responded, weirdly!”
Let’s talk about your theatre work to date. You’ve been in Chicago, Hedwig, I saw you in the SpongeBob Squarepants musical – what’s been your highlight? “Oh wow, you saw SpongeBob?” Divina laughs. “Hedwig was a highlight, I’ve got to be honest, it’s rare as a performer that you’re given a role that stretches you in so many different ways and you’re able to bring so much of yourself to the role. She’s having a manic episode, I’ve had plenty of them! And she’s in this in-between space of genders and the music is fantastic and the script is so much fun, it was such a joy.”
“I’m working with Kyran, A’Whora and Marina Summers at the minute,” Divina adds, in relation to an adult pantomime rendition of The Wizard of Oz that the quartet have been touring this winter, “and all three of them are just a joy. Which probably means that I’m the bugger in the company!”
I’m sure that’s not true! One final question – do you have any cities that you’re looking forward to returning to? “I have a story from everywhere because I’ve just been travelling all of the time. I’m genuinely very lucky and so grateful to still be able to roll around and sing songs for people and have a lovely time with them all,” Divina smiles. “Glasgow, I used to work there once a month, DJing, I had my ribs broken in a lesbian brawl! Newcastle, my sister lives up there, the audiences are always really great fun. Sheffield was one of the first places that the Frock Destroyers performed together. Liverpool – how can you not have a great time in Liverpool? I’ve had a really gorgeous time nearly everywhere that I’ve been.”
Anything else that you wanted to tell us before we go? “Oh, if people want a meet and greet it will be at merch table after the show! Because it’s nice to have a souvenir from the show isn’t it?”
Divina de Campo tours the UK during April and May – more information can be found here.
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