The Edmonton Queen: Not a Riverboat Story

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan, and président de la Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

The Edmonton Queen was first performed August 16, 1996, as an Edmonton
Fringe production that went on to win a Sterling Award. A year later it
appears as an autobiographical memoir that is being promoted as a social
history of the Edmonton drag scene. The book is sassy, amusing, and
liberally sprinkled with photos.

Where do these self-declared queens and competitively crowned empresses
come from? According to Hagen, “They mutate out of men from the most
macho environments.” Life in the Big Onion (Edmonton, thanks to the
“lip glossary”) is apparently not all that some politicians would
have us believe it is. Admirers of Hagen’s play will probably like
this book. For others, the author may come across as something of a
Genet wannabe.