“Just because you put a wig on, it doesn't change who you are“

Since we started these long-form interviews almost three years ago, one person stood out as the longest between agreeing to an interview and the interview taking place. Finally, Steven met River Medway on Zoom, where they discussed their performance in the upcoming Here & Now musical tour, becoming River Medway and the iconic Waghorn look on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

What is your official occupation?
I don't know. Depends on who you ask.
How would you describe it?
The broadest answer would be entertainer, I guess, if that's a profession.

Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
I mean, I guess it all falls under entertainment in some way or another. That would be the main thing. I do sometimes work as a wig stylist. That is when I feel like it, or if I've got some time off from being on stage.

For those who might be unaware, how would you describe drag?
How would I describe drag? Drag in its simplest form is an expression of everything that makes you you, but you're maybe not expressing every day. Because I think that a lot of people, when they're in drag, I don't think anything is put on, physically things are put on, but I think it's a lot of things coming out. I think people find a lot of confidence when they're in drag. That you can't fake it. Maybe you found confidence that you don't have without the external. The external makes your inside match it. That's how I've always seen it, because I think drag has changed my life, but I think it's in a way where it's made me feel the most myself I've ever felt, because what I found when I am in drag, I now find when I'm not in drag. But I think that was always there. Nobody's putting on drag that they're not happy with. Nobody's becoming someone they don't like. Most people become a person they like even more. Just because you put a wig on, it doesn't change who you are.

Would you describe it as a day when you became River, or was River always there, and it was about you realising that?
Well, it's interesting because I don't think I have a complete linear story of how I got to where I am now. When I was young, I always enjoyed dressing up and playing characters, and it was never about playing one specific character or anything like that. It was just more I loved wigs and costumes and makeup from when I was young. I think everybody, every da,y you choose what clothes you're going to wear, you choose how you're going to present yourself to the world. When you do drag, you're doing that maybe at a bit more of an extreme level, but it's the same way. Putting on a dress is the same as you picking out that shirt this morning. It just depends how you want to express yourself. I've always felt that when I was younger, and as I started to do a lot of youth theatre around Medway, I started to play female characters and it wasn't necessarily because I wanted to be a drag queen, it was just that was the character that I wanted to play for that show the same way if I was playing a male character. To me, it made no difference. When you see male characters on stage, they're still wearing makeup, they're still wearing a wig, they're still wearing a costume. It's the same as if you're playing a female. You change your appearance to fit whatever character you're feeling or whatever expression you're feeling. That's how it developed.
I didn't necessarily create River as a separate entity. It happened very organically as I found different ways to express myself. It wasn't, ‘I need to create this other person.’ For some people, it is that. This is just in my experience. I'm trying to think at what point River... I'd definitely been doing drag, and I'd started to go out in drag when I was 18. Then it was still just me being myself, though. It wasn't a name or anything. I think maybe when I was about 19, I decided that River Medway was going to be my name because me and my friend had said something about the River Medway and we sort of said that sounds like a drag name, that would be such a fantastic drag name.
River Medway, for me, it's got so many layers. It's where I'm from, it's very personal to me, and I want to be very true to myself. As I said, I don't use drag to escape from anything. I use it to express myself even further. I think River is also a lovely name. My favourite character in Doctor Who is River Song. There was just so many layers to it. I had thought about having a drag name for a long time before that, and I just couldn't ever pick one that didn't just feel like it could be anyone's name. Not many people can be called River Medway. It's so specific, which I like because I thought if I'm going to be known by a different name, it has to be something that's so specific to me. I don't want to be confused with anyone else. I don't want a name that someone else might have. At the time, I could probably count on one hand how many other drag queens are from Medway. There aren't many even now. It's one of those things that when you find it, you know for sure.
It was at Poco Loco with the Loco Cabaret, that was the first paid gig I had where I started to discover who River was as a performer, and then I really had to become River when I went on Drag Race, because obviously that is who you're going to be known by. I had this moment of thinking, I always wanted to work in entertainment, and obviously, I'd always imagined that it would be my real name that was out there. I realise now that it's a blessing to have a stage name because it's really nice to be able to have some sort of separation. So yeah, that's the long story of how River Medway came to be.

Can we talk about how you came up with the iconic Waghorn outfit?
Well, I got the call for Drag Race, and then they send you a packet with all of the runways that you're going to have to do. The first episode of Drag Race, you do a look inspired by your hometown. That's the standard. I would say it took me approximately ten seconds to decide what I was going to do for that runway. For me, it was an absolute no-brainer that a look to represent my hometown would be Thomas Waghorn with a cone on his head. I couldn't think of a single thing different that I would do about it, even now. I think it's so fundamentally Medway and it's so fundamental to me as a drag queen. It's like I'm from somewhere that is perhaps not the most glamorous place and I'm also not really the most glamorous person, but I like to do things in a way that you know maybe it does look glamorous, but also it's very fun and there's lots of layers to it and it's whether you see it, you think it's funny, when you know the layers from it, it just adds so much more to it, which is what I really enjoy doing.

How often are you on stage at the moment?
I've been off at the moment, because I'm about to go into a really long job. I'm enjoying the time off. Obviously, it's Pride season. I'm doing Prides almost weekly at the moment. But then, in about six weeks, I'm going into rehearsals for a show, which I'll be on stage six days a week on tour for about ten months.

What do you do at the Pride events?
I usually do a performance. I've got a mixture of Prides this year, actually, where some of them I've just been booked as River, and I'll do a set of my drag act. Then I've got a couple of Prides that I'm actually doing with the show that I'm in to promote the show, but also one of them is performing. It's a real mixture.

What is the show you're about to be in?
It's called Here & Now, which is a new musical which features all of the music from the pop group, Steps. It's not about Steps. It's not autobiographical or anything like that. It's a bit more akin to Mamma Mia, how they use all of the songs from ABBA to tell the story. That's what the show is. It's a musical. We did it briefly last year for one month because it's brand new, and people seem to like it. Now we're taking it on tour to every single city in the UK and Ireland. Lots of fun.

What is your role within that?
My character is called Jem, and the plot of the story is set in a big shop that's a little bit like the big Tesco in Gillingham. It's like a big superstore where they do everything. Everyone works in the shop, but my character is a customer in the shop. He starts seeing a boy that works in the shop, but my character is also a drag queen. It's been cast very well, clearly. I get to do a big drag number in the second act, but it's really great because this is sort of the first job I've done where I'm not in drag the whole time. I'm playing a male character. All of my jobs over the last few years, since Drag Race, have been me in full drag every time. It's really exciting for me.

How did this come about?
Oh, audition, the same way as anyone else, because I trained in musical theatre. All I've ever wanted to do is be on stage in musicals, really. I went on Drag Race because, if I'm being honest, that sort of just catapulted me into the drag world. I'd done local gigs and stuff like that before, but it was never a goal to get on Drag Race and that be my final endpoint. It has led me back to a career in musical theatre, which I always wanted. The pathway was very different to how I imagined when I was younger. But it's the same destination, no doubt.

You're not in the show as River Medway. You are River Medway, who is in the show.
Yes. I'm hired as an actor the same way any other actor. I had to go in for auditions, had to do self-tapes for it, had to do every single step that you have to do to get into musical theatre. It's not easy. I think some people sometimes think that if you've been on television or you've done something big, then you just get handed everything. Yeah, I did get handed a lot of work because I was on Drag Race, it's nice when you have somebody that has a bit of a name, but at the end of the day, you still have to be able to do the job to a very high standard.
Sometimes it's been interesting to navigate my way through this because I get a lot more satisfaction out of getting a job that I've had to audition for than a job that I've been offered, because I know that I've only got it because I was right for the part. I don't want a job that I'm not right for, just because of whatever other reason. I want it because I've auditioned for it, and you know what, I'm right for it.

As part of Here & Now, you appeared on Britain's Got Talent?
Yeah, we did that, which was lots of fun, and we did it with Steps. Steps aren't in the show, but for the BGT performance, we did it with them, which was really lovely. It's just one of those things. It's such a massive show, there's so many moving parts, and it's just one of those things we rehearsed, and they hired all of these new dancers for the performance and all of this thing, and then it's over in about three minutes.

It must be encouraging to know you've got Steps' blessing and support.
Yeah, they've been quite involved in the whole process, which is nice because maybe people think they've just stuck their name on it and they're not really actually bothered, but they're very much involved in it and they're really great at collaborating with our producers, our director and our choreographers. Everybody is really happy to be there making the show, which has been really lovely. That's why I'm doing it again with the tour.

Will this be the longest tour you've done?
I think possibly. We tour from the end of August until May. I think we have over 30 playing weeks. I have done tours that have been maybe six months, but it's also the show that I probably love the most of any job I've ever done.

I don't know how well you know the Here & Now schedule. Is it coming anywhere near the Medway Towns? What's the nearest people can go to see the show?
It will be Canterbury at the Marlow,e and it's actually our last stop on the tour. I think it's the third week in May. It seems like a lifetime, I'm sure it'll fly by. We'll make sure we let everyone know. I wish we were going somewhere even closer to Medway, but yeah, Canterbury is the Kent event.

Let's go back to the beginning a bit. You were born in Medway. How did your family come to be in Medway?
As far as I'm aware, my mum's family have lived in Medway for a long time. I know my late granddad was in Medway during World War Two. I'm assuming for a long time before that. My mum actually grew up on the same street that her and my dad ended up buying their house on, which is the house that me and my sister grew up in. My family is very Medway, really Chatham.
My dad moved from Singapore when he was a teenager, and he moved to Chatham as well when he moved to England. I don't know why that was necessarily where he went. My dad went to Greenacre and couldn't speak a word of English.

What can people look forward to or expect as part of Medway Pride this year from you?
I'm staying very on brand with the Steps musical, and I have curated my own Steps set, because if I'm honest, all I've got on my mind is their music, which I think is so great, and it's so much fun. It's so nostalgic for so many people. Everybody knows the words to 5, 6, 7, 8 and stuff like that. I think what better thing to do at Medway Pride? It's River Medway's version of it, this amalgamation of everything coming together. I'm really, really looking forward to it. I did the first Medway Pride in 2021, and that was just before I was on Drag Race, I think. I did that, and then Drag Race was on TV. Then my life went crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. Now I'm back there showcasing what I'm doing now. I'm really happy that they asked me this year. It's the perfect time to do it. I have to get the day off rehearsals to go and do it as well because I said I have to, I have to do Medway Pride.

Did you enjoy school?
It wasn't torturous. I went to Chatham Grammar. I was exactly the same when I was younger. I think if you had met me when I was younger and you meet me now, you’d think I'm the same. I'm a little bit more relaxed and a bit less erratic now. When I was in secondary school, I wouldn't say I had a hard time. There were definitely rough patches. When you go to an all-boys school, there weren't many people who were out. But I had really good friends in secondary school because we were all just a bit strange, to be honest. We were all quite different, but we all just understood each other, I think, because it felt like we were all ourselves. And I'm not talking about sexuality at all, by any means. A lot of my friends were straight.
It was more we all felt like we were ourselves and that's why we were such good friends. You get a lot of pressure, especially when you're a boy, there's a lot of pressure to act a certain way.
I was actually quite good at school, I just didn't really like it because it just wasn't for me. I knew for a fact I was not made to sit at desk. It's not because I'm bad academically, it was I wanted to be on stage, and at my school, we didn't even have GCSE drama. There was no outlet for me. Youth theatre in Medway changed my life. If I hadn't been going to youth theatre in Medway, I probably wouldn't end up where I am at all. I went to a youth theatre at the Brook Theatre. I don't remember if it had a proper name, it was just one that they ran. It wasn't one of the big ones. Loads of places had used the Brook Theatre, but this one was actually run by the Brook Theatre. My parents asked if I wanted to go when I was in year seven. I was actually painfully shy, believe it or not. I really wanted to be on stage and perform, but I was quite nervous about going somewhere where everyone wanted to do it, because I hadn't really experienced that.
My teacher was called Haydee, and she was phenomenal. She also did a youth theatre in Rainham at the Oasthouse Theatre. Then I did it there for a long time as well. Over the course of years, that was my haven. It wasn't necessarily an escape, because as I said, school wasn't horrible for me, but I would go there on a Wednesday evening or a Saturday morning, and I was more myself there than I had ever been anywhere. It was so great to be surrounded by so many people. After my GCSEs, I went to MidKent because I thought there's no point me staying here to do A-level, because I don't want to. At the end of the day, I shouldn't have to do something I don't want to do because I think when you're younger, you have to do a lot of things you don't want to do. And I thought, I'm not going to be someone I'm not. My parents have always encouraged me to do what I want to do, don't do things for other people. I went to MidKent, did musical theatre there, and then I went to performing arts school after MidKent in London.

Have you ever been invited back to MidKent?
Oh yeah, loads. I've taught students at MidKent. I've helped out sometimes when they're auditioning for their shows. I go to watch their shows if I can. My… I was going to say my friend, she's my ex-teacher, but she's a friend now, Emma Moore, who was there when I was there, and she still is there. When I was there, it was like her first or second year of being a teacher. She was probably younger than I am now when I was there which is crazy to think, because I was a bit of a nightmare if I'm honest. I always just thought I was a star, but I think maybe I didn't have the discipline behind it to hone it. I don't think I was delusional, I think I just had to get much better self-discipline. She always dealt with me, and now we're good friends. Whenever I'm around or she needs a hand or something, I'm always happy to come and help, because it's really important to me to help this next generation.
Especially in performing arts in Kent, to see people that are quite successful within the industry. If you're not seeing the results, you think, is it even possible for me? I know that when I was younger, I didn't really know anyone that was from Medway that was working in musical theatre at a big commercial scale. I always make sure I want people to see that if you are from somewhere that you don't necessarily think you're going to achieve, it does happen. You have to be very dedicated to it.

You were awarded an honorary doctorate. What was that like?
Yes, I was. It's actually crazy talking about all of these things. I think this has actually been really nice that this interview has been postponed because we can look at a lot of things quite retrospectively over the last few years. I'm a lot more... Not that I was never not lucid, but when things are coming at you 100 miles an hour, it's very hard to talk about it, the way I'm talking about it now. I can actually talk about things a bit more subjectively, which is lovely. Getting the honorary degree was absolutely wild.
I don't know how that came to be. I think it's absolutely crazy. It's one of the biggest honours I've had in my life, if I'm honest, to be given that at the point where I have to really think about it, because otherwise your brain just doesn't quite believe it. It doesn't see it that way because, when you think about the types of people that are getting honorary degrees in my mind, it's people that are doing really honorary things. I have to look back and think, I guess I'm doing something, but it's crazy.
I remember when I was at the ceremony in Rochester, at the cathedral, all of the security kept telling me as I was trying to get in to go to the special entrance and they said no you need to line up with all the other students and I had to try and say to them I'm not a graduating student, I'm getting an honorary degree and the security were like, “What are you talking about?” I'm trying to explain to them I'm not a student. I don't even believe it myself, and I'm trying to convince people that are older than me, I promise I'm supposed to be here. I didn't even get a real degree, because when I went to performing arts school, I got a diploma, and I was like, ‘I don't need a real degree to be on stage. You don't need any qualifications to be on stage.’ I thought I'm sure if I want a degree, I'll get one, one day. And now I do.
It's really crazy when everything has worked out the way I thought it was going to, but not the way I thought it was going to. Even just talking about it now, I have actually got a lot of what I thought I was going to get. I just got it in a very different way. It's made me trust that whatever is happening in your life is happening for a reason. And whatever you achieve, whatever you want, you will get. You just might not get there the way you think you're going to get there. But that’s the beautiful part about it I think.

What do you currently do to unwind and relax?
I really like to watch videos about engineering. Actually, because I like to learn about things that are so far away from my real life. I watch a lot of television. I watch a lot of cartoons.
Anything you'd recommend?
Futurama is actually on my TV right now. I watch Futurama every day. I really enjoy things that take me somewhere else, which is hard to do when your job is already a bit like a fantasy anyway.

Where do you like to go for dinner in Medway?
Oh, Poco Loco. The food at Poco Loco is so bloody good. I love it. Whenever I'm home, we either go there to eat or I get them to deliver it to my dad's house because I think it's brilliant. It's such hearty food. In Chatham, the Chinese restaurant Confucius. I go there a lot for my birthday. I would say one of those two.

What advice would you have for somebody looking to become a drag act today?
Do exactly what you want to do. Wear the outfits that you like for yourself. Do the makeup that you like for yourself. Do the wigs that you like for yourself. Sing the songs that you like for yourself. Use drag as a vehicle to showcase yourself. The drag itself isn't the show, drag is the showing off of what you want to do. It took me a long time to work this out. I wasn't singing musical theatre and pop music when I started drag, even though that is my absolute favourite thing to do in all the world. But I was doing what I thought I should be doing in drag. Drag should be very, very personal. It should be things that you like for yourself. There's no rush. There's no rush to do anything. Spend time on your craft, spend time on what sort of performer you want to be and stay really true to yourself, not trends.

Footnotes

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You can read our previous interviews here.

If you want to suggest ideas or send tips for people to interview, email Steven.

Steven Keevil still manages to watch hundreds of films a year. He recommends Predator: Killer of Killers. He listened to no music whilst writing this, but recommends reading Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser.