Ra’Jah O’Hara and Willam discuss 90s nostalgia, horror and new play Death Drop

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“I just want to keep making people smile and d**ks hard!”

“If you get a bus or any vehicle and put a bunch of drag queens on it, it will eventually break down,” says the brutally-honest and universally-beloved Willam. “We have to travel alone or in pairs, two by two. Like Noah’s Ark.”

She is of course talking about the UK nationwide tour that she and other drag performers – including recent RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars finalist Ra’Jah O’Hara – have embarked on, for hilarious new play Death Drop.

Set in the early 90s, the show sees a group of strangers invited to a remote island for a dinner to celebrate the tenth wedding anniversary of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Before they can work out exactly why they’ve been invited however, they begin to mysteriously disappear.

So, what are some of Willam and Ra’Jah’s favourite memories from that era, in which they were both growing up?

“O.J. Simpson!” Willam responds, without missing a beat and of course referring to the infamous 1995 trial, in which Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. It’s this quick-witted, close to the bone humour that Willam’s fans love so much; and which has also gotten them into trouble over the years when talking about RuPaul and Drag Race.

“I don’t want to talk about her [RuPaul] anymore unless it’s something positive,” Willam would later say, before adding that Ru “doesn’t care” about those who star on Drag Race, pointing to the release of latest single Blame It On The Edit as proof she’s more interested in making money.

RELATED RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series 3: Fans in shock after elimination twist

Willam’s comments come after those made on their podcast Race Chaser, in which just a couple of months ago, she claimed the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK had been severely rushed through production, with an episode being filmed every day, queens getting injured and, being ignored when they raised concerns with the team behind-the-scenes.

In our chat, Willam reaffirmed those comments, claiming that the mental health coordinator who had been a part of the show would not be returning for any future seasons of Drag Race UK, because of how bad things had gotten. A truly shocking turn of events, if accurate.

“I just want to keep making people smile and d**ks hard – or both at the same time!” Willam concludes. Something all fans will likely get behind.

As for Ra’Jah? She’s excited to be finally touring after missing out on the usual wave of live shows during the run of her original Drag Race season, due to the coronavirus pandemic; especially as part of a murder mystery.

Having always loved this genre, she says that the “Scream franchise is a favourite of mine”, happy that the fifth instalment in the series is right around the corner. Whilst in the UK however, she does miss her Jalapeño Kettle Chips!

When it comes to Drag Race, Ra’Jah is happy to only focus on the positives of the experience, but does call out social media giants as “not wanting” to help those who receive homophobic, racist and bigoted abuse on the platforms, following their appearance on the show.

In a world where these social platforms are able to automatically tag coronavirus-related content with links to official information from the World Health Organisation and other sources, we are left wondering why posts including slurs and the like cannot be treated in a similar vein.

With camp fun, glitz and glamour at the centre of this show, we can’t wait to get back to the theatre and experience the chaotic thrills of Death Drop first hand!

Death Drop comes to The Lowry in Salford from October 13th to October 16th.

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Dan Dunn
Dan Dunn
Executive Managing editor

Editor and Admin at MarkMeets since Nov 2012. Columnist, reviewer and entertainment writer and oversees all of the section's news, features and interviews. During his career, he has written for numerous magazines.

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