Simple script, shallow plot, but still quite charming - It's not theater, so call it by its name!

The problem is it never really flies from there. The plot is thin - it tries to tell a story about solitude, the search for acceptance, the right to be one's true self and the quest for love. But the script doesn't do these topics justice - there's no poetry or wit in the language, no depth in the way these ideas are treated.

The acting doesn't help either, mostly it feels like Venus is just improvising her lines right there and then on stage, constantly trying to come up with something to say, and stage props feel like objects placed there merely to help her associate. The staging is cozy, but in no way "inventive" as promised, and the dance routines mostly consist of Venus bouncing about, stopping here and there to strike a pose. As if this weren't enough, during the show we went to - admittedly a preview one for media - the microphone decided that jumping between the on- and off-mode might be a cool sound effect. Which it was not.

Okay, so where does this leave us? Is there anything positive to say?

Yes. All of the above can be forgiven if one chooses the right label for it, if the directors didn't insist on calling it "theater". This is a drag show, and as drag show it absolutely measures up to its genre, even though is far from touching the level of international professional drag artists as say...Taylor Mac.

In drag, the mere act of cross-dressing has a value, the mocking of gender roles, the challenging of the normative heterosexuality. In this vein, Venus and all that she stands for is wonderful and important, especially here in China where it is harder to raise these kinds of questions.

But if one persists in calling something theater, as the production team behind "Inside the Queen´s Boudoir" does, referring to the cabaret scene of "Le Gai Paris" linking it to Chinese opera traditions and whatnot, and then only deliver what is described above, it´s bound to fall flat.

It's up to the spectator to choose what she or he reads into it: an important gender bending performance, or a mediocre theater play. In the end, because of its significance, we choose the former.