Maisie

Britain’s most senior drag artiste provides the subject of Lee Cooper’s affectionate documentary.

Lee Cooper’s kindly little film is a warm-hearted tribute to David Raven, a man better known by his stage name, Maisie Trollette. Initially working with James Court and calling themselves The Trollettes, David, having come out as gay at the age of twenty-six, found fame through this stage act in the 1960s. Indeed, when Cooper made his film he could claim to have been in the business for close on fifty years. In point of fact, Maisie has been slow in getting its release so Raven is now eighty-eight although at the time of filming it was his eighty-fifth birthday that was drawing close.

Cooper’s approach here is an unusual one. Given that Raven’s stage persona was established in such key London gay venues as The Black Cat in Camden and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, it might have seemed natural to make a conventional biopic. In that event, Maisie could have been a reflection of the changing aspects of the British drag scene over the years leading to Maisie's regular appearances in Brighton Pride and to David's long-time involvement in the gay life of a city in which he has long lived. But, instead, Cooper gives us an agreeably informal view of David Raven in his eighties. His late, lamented partner, Don Coull, died over twenty years ago and David now lives alone. We come to recognise that it is being Maisie and performing in such local venues as the Legends Bar that keeps him going and gives him a continuing purpose in life.

Much of the film brings out David's collaboration with close friends also into drag. They include Dave Lynn and Jason Sutton and early on there are scenes involving Walter Cole from Portland, Oregon. As Darcelle he can claim to be the world’s oldest performing drag queen and he arrives in Brighton to salute David and to share a stage with him. The contrast in outlook between these two provides some of the best footage here as they compare notes (David’s style as Maisie draws on pantomime traditions and accepts aging while Darcelle defies the idea of being old; David when off-stage likes to be called David and, describing himself as a drag artiste, he dislikes being called a drag queen, a label readily accepted by Walter who is quite ready to be addressed as Darcelle). As it happens, both men have had children - Walter Cole's daughter Maridee is travelling with him, while David had a son who was killed in a road accident.

At 75 minutes Maisie is a relatively short film, but it is certainly episodic in its glimpses of David’s life at home and on the stage in Brighton (oddly the film is divided into segments labelled as to the particular day but without any indication of how much time is actually passing). His camaraderie with his friends is well caught including an impromptu singalong to the music of ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, but the actual stage footage is limited. There is, quite properly, talk of David's great loss through the death of Don Coull but it is far from extensive and I felt that the film’s focus could have been wider to advantage (a montage of photos passes in no time at all but reminds one of David's past connections such as Diana Dors, June Brown, Lily Savage, Danny La Rue and Dora Bryan). This creates a reminder of what is missing here, but anyone drawn to what Lee Cooper has chosen to give us, however haphazard it may seem at times, will feel warmly towards Maisie. And, if the earlier stage scenes yield less than maximum effect, the film does make up for it at its close: Maisie Trollette’s full-length rendering of ‘If I Never Sing Another Song’ is the moment that illustrates that old age has not diminished this artiste’s ability to put over a number.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  David Raven, Walter Cole, Allan Cardew, Miss Dave Lynn, Miss Jason, Marilee Cole-Woodson, David Pollikett, Stephen Richards, John Michael Fletcher, Paul O’Grady.

Dir Lee Cooper, Pro Deborah Aston and Lee Cooper, Screenplay Lee Cooper, Ph Sam Parsons, Ed Gareth Lang.  

Proper Charlie Productions-Bohemia Media.
76 mins. UK. 2021. UK Rel: 5 August 2021. Available on BFI Player and Bohemia Euphoria on Bohemia Media. Cert. 15.