Viewing Perfection through a Glory (W)hole

A bathroom stall with a viewing hole. A gym, a surgery. A model, endlessly treading forward.

Glory Whole is a collaboration between music trio Grecco Romank and drag creature Copper MaeSteal. The members of Grecco Romank took the edges of the space. Their music: Industrial, dark, yet glamorous. It surrounded the audience and the creature roaming within them. Copper MaeSteal played the avatar of our physical insecurities – a writhing mound of flesh, a fresh layer of skin coating their face. Their grotesque form was cleverly juxtaposed with precise drag movement and gigantic high-heeled boots. They stepped through the space with authority, commanding the audience's attention with a disturbing yet compelling routine. The audience shifted and made way for Copper’s demands, stranded in the centre of the action with a beautiful nightmare.

Clever propwork timed to the Grecco soundtrack told a story of internalising society’s scrutinising gaze. The two singers from Grecco Romank – Billie and Mikey – played the innocent victims, enticed by the creature’s promises of beauty and responding to its demands for perfection. Equal parts horrific and satirical, the audience watches their descent into obsession, contorting their bodies to the wishes of the entity. Entirely consumed by the ideals of Copper’s avatar, they are eventually gifted appendages of their own. Copper MaeSteal raises a mirror. First, to themselves; then, to Grecco Romank; finally, to the audience: we are them and they are us. Glory Whole was gruesome; it was camp. It was fantastic.