As I watched Nigerian drag performer Le Gateau Chocolat apply his makeup and wig on stage and allow the audience a glimpse at the illusion, I knew that I was in the presence of a fearless artist. “Black” is not only a reference to the Lagos born artist’s skin colour, but his life long battle with the “black dog” that is depression, a battle that he is winning, but that never ends.

The autobiographical journey of Little Black the child to Black the man is told through song, recordings and even animation. It begins with LGC’s childhood dreams of being an opera diva singing Wagner, being marginalised by a group of taunting cruel boys at the local pool (Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit) and then crushed by a violent father and a schoolboy bully who becomes his abusive partner (a searingly ironic version of Gershwin’s My Man’s Gone Now).

Escaping Lagos for the United Kingdom, LGC obtains a law degree as his father always wanted and realises that he can sing (Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair) only to sink into depression, thoughts of self-harm and ending it all (Dido’s Lament).

It’s not all gloomy however. The song NHS Direct...