Ben is a 40 year old builder who has just separated from his wife of 20 years and finds himself back in his hometown, starting out again. He meets Callum, a young, gay guy who helps Ben come out of his shell. They quickly become best friends, and with Callum’s help, Ben opens up about being bisexual and wanting to be a stand-up comedian. There’s just one problem – he has crippling stage fright. Enter Tammy Scowls, a drag queen with a vicious tongue and a warm heart. Can a builder become a drag queen and achieve his life’s dream of being a stand-up comic?
When writing Dragging Your Heels I wanted to produce a show which was funny, entertaining but with a message of positivity. The world is such a mess at the moment, with hate and negativity everywhere we look. I wanted to write a piece of theatre that would make people laugh but also give them hope for the future. We all have dreams we wish to fulfil, and we should never stop reaching for what we want out of life. No matter how old we are, we should never give up – but we get lost in the mundane day-to-day, and years go by in the blink of an eye. That’s how the show’s title Dragging Your Heels was born. It’s not just a musical comedy about a builder becoming a drag queen, it’s also a reminder to all of us to never stop chasing our dreams.
Australian star of stage and screen, Dolly Diamond, is flying in to play the fabulous drag queen Tammy Scowls and the whole team behind the show is just fantastic.
We start out with a one-night-only performance in Wimbledon this June before our full week’s run (including Saturday matinee) at Camden Fringe in August.
Multi-award-winning director Paul T. Davies is steering the ship, and we have five incredible, original songs composed by Will Stead. The cast is made up of myself playing builder Ben, Tafadzwa Madubeko as his best friend Callum and of course Dolly Diamond as Tammy Scowls.
Dragging Your Heels is a modern, queer play about life on and off the scene. Diversity and equality are incredibly important to me, and I showcase both of them as much as possible in all of my work. I also wanted to break the generational divide we seem to have in society. We’re all different ages and come from various backgrounds, but we’re all human. We seem to view people as different because they’re older or younger than we are, but we’re all on the same path, just at different stages. We have more in common than we think. The older I get, the more I realise just how blinded we are when it comes to age groups. We’re still that same child we were, we just gain more knowledge and life experience as time goes on.
I didn’t just want to write a play that would make an audience laugh, I also wanted them to relate to the characters and the message – you are never too old to chase your dreams. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the past decade. I was very lost at one point in my life. Major life events threw my own in chaos and made me believe there was no way forward, but over time and with the help of my now husband, I was able to find a path out of the darkness and start to rebuild my life.
Since then, I have written a musical, two plays, and now a musical comedy, as well as published two books. It isn’t easy, and none of this has made me rich, but I truly love my work. Everything I am goes into what I do. I just hope my words resonate with others. I believe that together, we can make our world beautiful, more accepting and more inclusive for everyone. We all have the power to make a difference.
Where can I see Dragging Your Heals?
Dragging Your Heals is on 19-23 August 2025 at Camden People’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PY, United Kingdom.
Dragging Your Heals is ADULTS ONLY as there is swearing and sexual references.
