Meet Le Gateau Chocolat – the drag act who’s defying the trolls

From cabaret to Wagner, George Ikediashi tells Louis Wise how he’ll be spending his bail-out cash

Afew weeks ago, it was revealed that the Arts Council had allocated a bracingly large slice of Covid bail-out cash to the performer George Ikediashi, who goes by a rather more luxurious stage name.

Nick Ferrari, the radio presenter, summed up a lot of people’s bemusement and indignation: “Why has a drag act called Le Gateau Chocolat been given £215,000?”

It is, in a way, peak 2020, when the problems of a raging pandemic clash with an ongoing culture war. In fact, it would be tempting to find Ferrari’s summing-up funny, if the times – and the consequences – weren’t so grim.

“I mean, wow,” starts Ikediashi, a 38-year-old British-nigerian, when we speak a few weeks later via Zoom. “I have been inundated with hate ate and homophobic abuse and racist abuse because of this thing. And I understand that we are in some e sort of culture war, but…!”

Though he fills the screen in na a bright fuchsia hoodie, set off by y navy blue nails, the artist – sitting in his kitchen in Brighton – is feeling flat, or as flat as someone with his level of energy can be. Because Ikediashi hasn’t got this far in his career by blending into the background.

A typical Gateau show involves cabaret, theatre and song, stretching from pop to opera, all anchored to a baritone ne voice that has been described as “warm and deep enough to bathe the in”. Since 2000, he has performed med everywhere from Glastonbury y to Bayreuth to the Southbank to Sydney Opera House.

Last year, Time Out praised the way Ikediashi was able to “caress a melody with tender sensuality in one moment before breaking out a booming, g, commanding and richly textured red lower register the next”.

We are ostensibly meeting to o talk about his Christmas show Duckie, kie, a retelling of The Ugly Duckling, which is due to open in Manchester. Thanks to ongoing restrictions, the artist himself doesn’t believe it’s going to happen. If so, it will go the same way as The Ghost Light, a show at London’s Barbican this month (postponed), a production of Tannhauser in Bayreuth in July (cancelled), the debut of his new show Pandora (cancelled), and Great Arias in Melbourne in March (cancelled).

This goes some way to explaining Ikediashi’s up-and-down mood; it also explains that bail-out cash. The money was not just for him, but for his company – a team who help him create and manage several different productions.

It will also go towards paying collaborators. Pandora, for instance, was supposed to see Ikediashi perform with the chamber orchestra Manchester Camerata. “There are livelihoods absolutely intrinsically linked to the debut of that show – not just mine!” he cries.

It’s clear Ikediashi is horribly hurt by the way the story has been reported. However, he says he wouldn’t change a thing. He just filled out the application, which is “rigorously, robustly tested”, he says. And if you’re still bemused by the Arts Council decision, it’s probably a question for them. Don’t expect Ikediashi to criticise them – he has been working with them closely for nine years now.

“And that hasn’t just been making shows – it’s about making sure that these [shows] go to places they wouldn’t otherwise be able to go.” Because the other thing that will surely drive his critics to distraction is that a lot of Ikediashi’s work is centred on “messages”, whether that be about racism, hom homophobia, body discriminatio discrimination, bullying or mental health.

Take Duckie, Duck a rather sweet parable in which t the Ugly Duckling realises that he d doesn’t need to pray for a magica magical transformation: he is fine ju just the way he is.

““At A one point, I thought, ‘Pffff ‘Pfff, I could give [the mo money] back,’ ” the pe performer sighs.

“So “Somebody sent me a message saying it could fee feed the kids that Marcus Ra Rashford was fighting for. An And then I thought, ‘It’s not just for me, and it’s not just for a all the creatives who work with me. It’s for all the people who are invested in the message message.’ ”

It’s not ju just children’s stomachs that need feeding, he points out. “Their s souls and their identities need to be fed as well.”

Who Whoever trolls Ikediashi next should sho probably note somethi something: past form suggests he’ll prob probably use it as fuel to make a whol whole new show. Who knows? He m might even get some more fundin funding for it.

‘I have been inundated with abuse, racist and homophobic’

Hurt: George Ikediashi, Le Gateau Chocolat, is angry at his detractors

Le Gateau Chocolat in Duckie is at Home Manchester, 14-16, 21-23 December