One way of describing the relationship between what happens during a show on stage and behind the scenes outside the audience’s view is the way a swan moves through the water.

While to the public eye the beautiful bird is gliding effortlessly, causing barely a ripple in the water, under the surface its legs are thrashing wildly to create the forward momentum.

But when you take a show as complex and colourful as Priscilla Queen Of The Desert on tour, that frantic splashing gets even more intense – especially for the company’s wardrobe and wigs departments.

The brightly coloured costumes and fantasy outfits are almost an extra character in themselves in the story of two drag queens and an ageing transsexual taking to the road in the Australian bush.

“People wouldn’t believe what was going on backstage,” says wardrobe assistant and make-up tutor Anthony Tester, in a break between the Congress’s Thursday matinee and evening show.

“It’s a performance in itself. I know Wicked is on tour and they have a lot of costumes, but we are one of the biggest costume tours on the road at the moment.

“Most shows have just one wagon for costumes. We take a whole lorry, which takes about 18 to 20 wagons easily.”

With a 15-strong named cast, plus another 11 ensemble and swing members, the department would find its work cut out anyway.

But throw in the constant costume changes and the experience becomes something of a military exercise.

“The quickest change is 15 to 20 seconds,” says Tester, who is one of four people in the permanent touring wardrobe team, who work alongside the four-strong wig team and six resident dressers in each theatre.

“We had a very busy tech week in February. At the time it seemed there was no way we could do this.

“The best way to refer to it is like a Grand Prix. When the car comes into the pits, everyone has a job to do. It can be manic backstage, especially if you don’t have much space.”

The Argus:

The teams had to go through costume changes two or three times in technical rehearsals to ensure everyone was in the right spot backstage – although on tour the key is to improvise as the space in the wings changes from venue to venue.

In the wardrobe space at the Congress as Tester speaks to The Guide there are several washing machines going full pelt.

Tester and his colleagues are making emergency repairs to some of the costumes used only minutes before, ready for that evening’s performance.

“Every show something breaks, if not ten things,” says Tester. “There’s never a show when nothing breaks. This is the only time we get to spend fixing costumes, re-gilding the head-dresses or re-gluing things. It’s non-stop for us, we’re generally in five or six hours before a show doing maintenance.”

Wardrobe works in tandem with the wig team, with head of wigs Sonja Mohren responsible for 92 different hairpieces on tour.

“They’ve changed the set a bit from the West End, but as far as costumes and wigs go it is hardly different,” she says, while tidying a hairpiece for the evening performance.

“All the technical teams work together. Occasionally Claire Tucker, the head of wardrobe, will ask us to help out with costumes and if we see a dresser is struggling, we will help them out.

“A quick change will sometimes mean two dressers and two wig people on one person.”

Mohren started her career as a hairdresser in Australia in the late 1980s, before moving to the UK in the early 1990s to study make-up for stage.

Working in the wig department meant she could weave the two strands of her career together. She has worked on West End performances in the past but admits a love of touring.

“I like the travelling and the variety,” she says. “I’ve done a few international tours. When you go far afield, you are getting paid to travel!”

Tester is excited about the residency in Brighton – largely because he’s originally from Littlehampton.

“I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with my family – it will be the first time for a long time,” he says, admitting that with the tour moving from Eastbourne to Aberdeen over the summer, he didn’t have a chance to catch up with them then.

This year marks his second in the theatre world, having started out doing costume for pantomimes, before moving on to the West End version of Horrible Histories.

As a freelancer, he has tried to widen his skills base.

“I can do costumes, wigs and make-up,” he says. “When I saw Priscilla coming up, I went for it. I specialise in drag make-up but I like to cover all bases in theatre.”

This is his first tour and he is experiencing the challenges of an ever-changing location first hand.

“If you’re going into a town you don’t know, trying to find a fabric shop can be a mission,” he says. “Luckily we have seemingly endless supplies of stuff here if something breaks.”

The Argus:

His bête noire in the show are the angel costumes – the only ones which have to be taken off and on again several times each performance.

“There is an amount of net underneath the costume, which if it catches on a heel rips the entire thing,” he says. “The angels go up and down, fly and walk. We are often backstage with a needle and thread stitching away at a massive tear before the character has to fly up in the air.”

With somewhere in the region of 300 to 400 costumes on the tour, there are some amazing fantasy creations.

The striped pants connected to giant solid footwear for I Will Survive’s first-half closer (a above) need to be replaced in their entirety if they break. Meanwhile larger costumes such as the giant cupcakes fold down to fit into pizza box-style storage and have to be kept flat otherwise they warp.

“There are so many costumes and changes you literally don’t keep count,” says Tester, adding that bringing the resident dressers in on the first day is always interesting.

“We start at 9am on a Monday and go through the various costumes and changes,” he says.

“It’s a shock – we have dressers who have been at the theatre for years, who get Priscilla thrown at them and can’t cope!

“Generally the first day is manic, but by Wednesday it has all settled down – and by the time we’ve settled in, it’s time to move on again.”

Clearing up is rarely a problem. Both departments tidy as they go so the wigs can be packed up in 20 minutes, while it only takes an hour and a half to get all of wardrobe away.

It’s the preparation and set-up which takes the time – and some of the actors need to get in pretty early to ensure they hit the stage on time.

Indeed, when The Guide was wandering around backstage there was one figure who could be seen popping up in the wigs and wardrobe department, still in his full make-up.

“On a Saturday or a matinee I start at noon and have to stay in the building between shows because I’ve got a faceful of make-up,” Richard Grieve, who plays transsexual Bernadette, told The Guide before his Eastbourne visit.

“It’s slightly depressing when the sun is shining and everyone is out.

“It takes me an hour to get into her make-up and costume.”

As for the future, both Mohren and Tester are signed up to Priscilla until March, and have no idea what will happen to the show after that.

Working in such close proximity means the teams get very close very quickly.

“We’re like a family,” says Mohren. “You have to stay together in accommodation, work together and socialise together. You learn to like everyone like a brother or a sister.”