Born Naked

Award-winning. Glitter-drenched. Unapologetically fierce.

Starring the luminous Lethabo Bereng and sensational Sihle Shona, and under the discerning directorial eyes of Kirsten Harris, Born Naked tells the story of two young drag queens navigating life, love, loss, and becoming in Johannesburg.

At the heart of the story is Blaq Widow, mentored by her beloved drag mother, Queen Bling. As Blaq Widow pieces together her past, she walks a line between memory and reckoning -pain and play, joy and transformation. We time travel with her - from the theatre to trains, from drag pageants to back rooms and backstage dressing rooms.

Fasten your wigs, Joburg. Lock up your partners. Red lips. Red lights. One regal rendezvous. Blaq Widow descends on RedFest this June - and she’s on the prowl. Her venom? Fifteen times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake.

This collaborative theatrical offering is inspired by a myriad of South African queer stories, told in memory of Thapelo Makhutle, and based on Stephen Kotze’s original concept under the same title. It is also a prescribed IEB Dramatic Arts Matric setwork, making it as essential as it is unmissable.

“We’re all born naked, darling. The rest is drag.”