The Mardi Gras Boys of Singapore's English-Language Theatre

Abstract

This short paper is extracted from a larger project that explores colonial and intercultural queer encounters in performance. Focusing on Singapore as a transnational site, I study how Mardi Gras is appropriated and staged in a local English-language production of the same name, as well as in a large-scale queer party in Singapore, regarded as "Asia's Mardi Gras." Singapore's Mardi Gras boys perform the city-state's uncertain and superficial transformation from patriarchal father-state to "Asia's new gay capital" in its bid to attract global queer capital in the form of creative talent and pink-dollar industries. Mardi Gras boys are a lens through which to consider the larger social and global ramifications of the staging of queer boys in this global city-state.