HE left his home city of Glasgow after the trauma of a sexual assault to become one of Spain’s best-known drag performers.
Bargeddie-born performer Jon Gerrard McFaulds is now returning home with his powerful show which is already a runaway success in Barcelona.
After four sold-out runs, Acts of Contrition, his critically acclaimed autobiographical play, will have its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The show explores Catholic guilt, queer identity, family expectations and the transformative power of drag through a personal lens packed with millennial nostalgia, humour and emotional honesty.
Raised in Bargeddie within a devout Catholic family, McFaulds spent years battling feelings of guilt and shame around his sexuality.
Now 37, he reflects candidly on coming to terms with his sexuality during the 1990s and 2000s.
“Growing up as a gay kid in 90s Glasgow was tough,” said McFaulds.
“I grew up in the east end of Glasgow with my granny in quite an old-fashioned Catholic family and from a young age I carried an enormous amount of guilt about being gay.
“I became very good at pretending to be straight because I genuinely believed there was something wrong with me. Looking back now, I realise how exhausting it was living a life that wasn’t mine.”
McFaulds did not come out until in 2013 when he was in his 20s and soon afterwards made the life-changing decision to move to Barcelona, following a traumatic assault.
“After that, I felt I had to leave Glasgow behind,” he said. “Barcelona gave me the freedom to rebuild myself and discover who I really was. That’s where Bonnie Oui Laddie was born. In many ways, drag saved my life.”
The show charts that journey from schoolboy to internationally celebrated drag performer, blending comedy, confession, music and theatrical storytelling.
Audiences meet a cast of vivid characters including Madonna, a formidable nun and the striking queen McFaulds has become.
“This isn’t a poor me play – this is my full-circle moment,” he said. “Edinburgh will be the first time I ever take the stage in Scotland as Bonnie Oui Laddie.
“Fourteen years ago, I left the country still hiding. Now I’m coming back completely at peace in full drag, back to the scene of the crime – and I’ve never been happier to own every single chapter of that story.”
Alongside the Fringe production, McFaulds has also been filming a documentary charting the creation of the play and his journey back to Scotland.
While celebrating progress for LGBT+ communities, he also hopes the show will spark conversations about the challenges facing queer people today.
He said: “Making this show has been pure therapy. Every performance feels like another layer of healing. The documentary captures that process and what it means to return home after spending years trying to outrun parts of your past.”
Acts of Contrition: The Drag Origins of a Guilty Catholic runs from August 7-30 at Edinburgh’s Braw Venues in Hill Street
