I am King. I am Queen | Roýmata Holmes & Room to Play

Roýmata Holmes is a shapeshifter.

I’m sure as a queer person of colour, who grew up in far north Queensland, and as a footy player in their teenage years, they’ve been forced to code switch and fit into the boxes that have been forced upon them through much of their life.

As they grew, Roýmata began to push back against being defined by others by using their body to express themselves through dance and drag. As a lifelong dancer for much of their adult life, they taught their body to reshape itself effortlessly through any number of shapes and to move to all types of rhythms. And as a drag performer, they’ve been able to reclaim the feminine energy that they’ve been forced to supress for much of their life.

Now, in I am King. I am Queen Roýmata Holmes fully claims their space by telling their life story and exploration of self in their debut autobiographical solo show. Created and developed by Roýmata and Heidi Manche (Room to Play) it explores Roýmata’s life from small town beginnings to international stardom and back again.

I am King. I am Queen covers much of Roýmata has packed into their life thus far through a mix of dance, monologue, voice overs and drag. Starting with their youth in a small town where they thrived on the football field, but craved other means of expression, it goes on to explore their escape into a successful international career in dance, alongside their struggles against a darkness that threatened to take everything from them and their burgeoning exploration of drag and all of the freedom it brings. All in less than an hour.

In an interview about the show, Roýmata called creating the show an opportunity to reclaim their voice, truth and “brown queer body” after a lifetime of feeling like they needed to suppress themself to fit in.

Image: Riley Claxton

The Anywhere Festival season is the first showing of work in development of I am King. I am Queen and it shows a lot of potential. It is still very rare to see the stories of queer people of colour on the stage and screen, especially Pacifika peoples, that celebrate their joy and the importance of ongoing connection to culture in their lives. It was a joy to see Roýmata share these experiences as a part of the showing and I particularly loved the passion that they showed sharing the stories of their family and the dances from The Cook Islands. I would love to see more of this in future developments.

With a life full of such dense experiences, it seemed like the creative team wanted to cover every key event that has shaped Roýmata. They do an admirable job taking the audience with them through their life journey in their first time acting and sharing their story publicly. However, with the performance clocking in at under an hour, this meant that the many of the key events of their life were only briefly touched on, taking away from the impact of many of the stories explored.

Having lived such a full life, I would have loved to have learnt a lot more about how Roýmata’s experiences have shaped them and what they has learnt along the way. As well as more exploration on how family and culture has shaped them, I would have loved to have learnt more about what dance and drag brought to their life, their experience of living between cultures and what it means to be non-binary in Australia. In its current iteration, the show presents Roýmata’s life as a linear journey between masculine and feminine and there is a lot of potential to explore what it means to truly live in the space between the gender binaries imposed on us.

As a magnetic and charismatic performer, Roýmata ultimately lifts the show above the limitations of the script, owning the stage from the moment they enter. Their skills and experience in dance and drag shine through and are definitely highlights of the showing for me. The audience particularly came alive when Roýmata stamped down the stage in drag in the final act. That may be partly because a million seasons of Drag Race have programmed us all to respond with yesqueenhuntyslaythehousedownbootsgawdokurrrr whenever we see someone in drag, but Roýmata in drag is hella fierce and we were all living for ever second of her lipsync performances.  

I am King. I am Queen is an admirable first development from Roýmata Holmes and the Room to Play team. Roýmata has all the moves and charm to captivate their audience and a story that needs to be told. With some refinement and focus to the script, I am King. I am Queen has the potential to be a showstopper. I look forward to seeing the next showing of this work in development.