[Slamdance 2021 Review] In 'Workhorse Queen', Mrs. Kasha Davis is a Queen on the Fringe

It’s hard to talk about drag anymore without discussing RuPaul’s Drag Race. The reality TV catapulted drag into the mainstream in the course of 13 (and counting) seasons…and that’s not even taking into consideration the offshoots such as All Stars and entries across the globe from Chili to Sweden and Thailand to the upcoming Australian version. A show that began on the niche, queer channel Logo TV is now hosted on VH1, beamed into millions of homes. It’s a powerhouse of queer television that virtually every drag queen would want to be a part of, not only because of the visibility and ability to take their career to the next level…but to be validated. That the years spent on their art would be noticed.

That validity comes immediately to light in one segment of Workhorse Queen, a documentary about drag queen Mrs. Kasha Davis (Ed Popil). In this particular segment a friend and fellow drag queen Aggy Dune talks about the divide between a RuPaul drag queen and the rest of the world. Every year, she auditions and every year is turned away. It’s a moment of candid vulnerability where Aggy talks about the validation it’d bring and the happiness it’d give to her fans, who’ve supported her for years.

It’d be easy to dismiss Aggy’s tears as crocodile and at first I didn’t quit understand the inclusion, but the documentary spends a good chunk of its middle section to explore the queer community’s complex relationship with RuPaul’s Drag Race. For all the good the reality TV competition brings to the queer community and the positive representation and careers it creates in mainstream culture, it simultaneously creates a chasm that sometimes feels uncrossable. It’s this divide that Workhorse Queen partially explores as it digs into the life and career of the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 contestant Mrs. Kasha Davis. 

Out of drag, Ed Popil is a forty-seven-year-old man and a husband of fourteen years who started performing as Mrs. Kasha Davis in 2004. And while the documentary does spend a good portion of its time discussing RuPaul’s Drag Race and the challenges of being a reality TV queen when your name isn’t Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 or Trixie Mattel, Workhorse Queen is at its most interesting when it peels back the layers on this queer man. We learn about his mother and abusive father who, in Ed’s words, “tried everything to make sure I was the man he wanted to share his name [with]…versus the boy I was.” How he was so in the closet that he ended up marrying a woman and broke down crying on his wedding day because he knew it was, “...the final straw that you cannot be yourself.”

Hearing this truth from another older gay man hit hard. I was pretty much dragged out of the closet when I was thirty and while the last decade has been filled with understanding and acceptance, I saw a lot of myself in Ed. It’s a story that queer people still need in 2021. There’s no “right” time to come out and society still puts so much pressure on maintaining a straight status quo. Workhorse Queen digs through these moments of heartbreak and sadness as it explores how getting a divorce, disastrously coming out to his parents and moving to Rochester, NY jump started Ed’s life.  This later-in-life story about pursuing your dream, no matter your age, was the most powerful moment for me.

But that’s not to say Workhorse Queen sugarcoats Ed’s journey as Mrs. Kasha Davis. It dives headfirst into the disappointments, the waning attention, the addiction and pain of being just on the cusp of fame. It’s here that I was most intrigued because director Angela Washko doesn’t present a fluff piece. Instead, she explores the ups and the very painful downs of Mrs. Kasha Davis, using her fellow Rochester queens and older queens to make a point. 

Workhorse Queen presents a well-rounded picture of being a working drag queen in a reality TV competition world while simultaneously providing so much context to Ed’s journey from a meek young boy to a powerhouse performer. And if there’s one thing I took from the documentary it’s the reminder that you’re never too old to pursue your passion. At one point, a fan talks about going through cancer treatments and filling up on joy through watching Mrs. Kasha Davis perform: “I’m going to be able to keep going. So that’s why I came.” The same can be said about Ed and his fabulous art.