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BRIGHTON FRINGE PREVIEW: The Poety we make by Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal

Who do we fall in love with: a body, a soul, a gender?

Emerging theatre company Flugelman Productions presents the premiere of The Poetry We Make, a new love story for our times, by Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal.

There will be two special performances only, at the Marlborough Theatre, as part of the Brighton Fringe festival on May 6 and 7 at 5:45pm.

Based on real life events and the creative collaboration between two RADA graduates, Edwina Strobl will direct Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal’s Brighton Fringe debut, with an extraordinary cast of performers and musicians, including Transgender performer Elijah W. Harris.

Winners of the O2’s ThinkBig bursary and in partnership with StoneCrabs Theatre, the script has been developed with the support of Wilton’s Music Hall and Old Vic New Voices project for outstanding young playwrights.

What happens when the person you love announces their gender transition?

For Elliott, the world is tipped on its head. Everything that was true no longer is and Elliott must consider some very big assumptions.

Who did she fall in love with: a body, a soul, a gender? and can Elliot learn to love Robin as a woman?

No love story is ordinary, but this one especially isn’t. So, go on a journey of love, loss and acceptance, all with the lyrical support of Dolly Parton.

With Dolly as your guide, the ending is bound to be fabulous.


Event: THE POETRY WE MAKE by Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal

Where: Marlborough Theatre, 4 Princes Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 1RD

When: May 6-7

Time: 5.45pm

Cost: £9.50/£7.50

To book tickets online, click here:

Subline reclaim their golden crown

Subline the gentlemen’s bar on St James Street, beat twenty other teams at Charles Street last night to become the cleverest LGBT+ crew in the city and regain the crown they last held in 2014.

Winners of the Golden Quiz: Subline
Winners of the Golden Quiz: Subline

The quiz was hosted by on form Lola Lasagne who had an answer for everyone and kept the evening moving along at breakneck speed, barely pausing to neck the line of drinks that an appreciative audience kept insisting on buyer her.

Lola said: “This is my favourite gig of the year which bring together the voluntary sector, the statutory sector and local LGBT+ businesses all under one roof to let their hair down and have a really good evening out.

“I would like to thank my assistants DJ Ruby Roo, Jon- Paul Mager, and Nicki Delmege who kept the quiz moving along very smoothly, James Brooks for writing the questions and Chris Marshall and all his wonderful staff at Charles Street for working so hard all evening .”

Gscene editor James Ledward explained the changes to this years voting categories at the Golden Handbag Awards and called for a fair and fun campaign.

He said: “For many people a Golden Handbag Award is more than a piece of paper, it is recognition of years of work serving the city’s many and varied LGBT+ communities.”

Winners on the night were Subline with Charles Street and Bedford Tavern sharing joint second place.

However, the star of the show was Lola Lasagne who managed to wring every last moment of drama out of the proceeding, especially when revealing the positions of all the teams at the end of the evening.

£420 was raised for the Rainbow Fund who distribute grants to local LGBT+ organisations who provide effective front line services to LGBT+ people in the city.

Voting for the Golden Handbags 2017 opened at the end of the quiz and this years winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony at Hilton Brighton Metropole, on Sunday, June 11 at 7.30pm.

To vote online in the Golden Handbags 2017, click here: and press the banner at the top right of the website, which will take you to the new Golden Handbag website that is being constructed by DJ Tony Button.

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FEATURE: Sit-Down-Stand-Up with Steve Lee

It is 6.30am, Steve Lee is in Northern Thailand, dressed in a sarong about  to try to peel 150 hard-boiled eggs.

Even by his somewhat esoteric theatrical lifestyle this has to be regarded as bizarre. The easy eggs take under thirty seconds, the difficult ones can take two minutes, after an hour he has done twenty-five.

‘Why?’ would be a perfectly reasonable question to apply to the above.

Steve says: “Let’s start with the sarong. It is moderately but not excessively hot. I do not like shorts, yes perhaps on ball boys at Wimbledon but not on me. I think, well I think they are common on men of a certain age. Don’t get me wrong, I have excellent legs, hairless, smooth, no flab or sag and anyone who saw me below the waist, and they are few and far between these days, would say they were the legs of a thirty year old, and I am twice that and change.

“So yesterday on an excursion to a neighbouring town for lunch alongside the Mekong river with a view of another country Laos three hundred yards away, swimmable, if one could swim, I was offered a sarong for two pounds fifty. Why not? I love it. Perhaps I’ve always been a closet cross dresser and it’s the skirt I’ve always needed?

“So the eggs? I am staying with the family of an ex with whom I am still great friends. I have just lost my soul mate and ‘brother’ of 46 years who died suddenly and unexpectedly and I am out of the country to avoid looking at an empty chair. The family sell street food in a market and the hard-boiled eggs are then reboiled with some foul brine to make them completely inedible, however it seems that when I peel them they sell out but when anyone else peels them they can’t give them away.

“I believe this to be a sop to me to ensure that I am up at 6.30 a.m. peeling the bloody things! I do insist on a large brandy per hour – I am meant to be on vacation for Chrissake, and with England seven hours behind us the sun is most definitely over the yardarm.

“I am still not sure how one copes with the death of someone you have lived and worked with for 46 years. Peter and I were a double act and what is Wise without Morecambe? It’s going to take a great deal of adjustment and as one of my correspondents said: “the grief never goes, you just make an accommodation with it”.

“For myself, after nearly half a century in show business, and you’ve never heard of me, I am going to launch myself on the Brighton Fringe as a sit-down stand-up – at my age I can’t be too energetic!”

Steve promises raconteurism with rancour as opposed to one liners and some live music if he can sober up a pianist in time.

Go along and see him in May at the Jury’s Inn Waterfront Hotel (the Thistle to you and me).


Event: Sit-Down Stand-Up with Steve Lee

Where: Sweet Waterfront, Jury’s Inn, Brighton Waterfront, BN1 2GS

When: Daily from May 22-28

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £8

To book tickets online, click here:

Or telephone: 01273 763235

Bear-Patrol raise £12,552,99 for Sussex Beacon

Team Bear-Patrol ran in the Brighton Half Marathon at the end of February, raising £12,552.99 for the Sussex Beacon.

This year there were 22 runners in The Bear-Patrol Team all running as part of Team Beacon.

 Danny Dwyer
Danny Dwyer

Bear-Patrol’s Danny Dwyer, said: Thank you to all of the Bear-Patrol Supporters who took part in the race either as a runner, volunteered on our water station and/or came along to support our runners on the route. All support no matter how it’s done is always fully appreciated.”

He continued: “I can only but thank every one of our runners, volunteers and supporters for taking part in the race with the Bear-Patrol Team and hope that you will join us again for The Brighton Half Marathon in 2018”.

Miss Hope Springs
Miss Hope Springs

The next major Bear Patrol fundraiser will be the annual Hibernation Luncheon on Sunday, October 22 at The Old Ship Hotel starring Miss Hope Springs.

Tickets will be available to purchase from May 15 and this year Bear Patrol will be guaranteeing £5,000 of the money raised at the luncheon (via the raffle and auction) towards securing the future of the Counselling Project recently closed down at Switchboard and help relocated it into another LGBT+ organisation in the city. Any funding remaining will be donated to the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum.

To book tickets for Hibernation, email: info@bearpatrol.org.uk

Voting in the Golden Handbag Awards 2017 goes live

Voting in the Golden Handbags Awards, 2017 is now live.

This year is the 21st anniversary of the very first Golden Handbag Awards, staged in 1996 at the Brighton Dome with the original tiller girls topping the bill.

To mark the milestone, a few changes have been made to the voting categories this year.

In the community section the choirs and sports groups will now have their own award categories, because, there are so many of them they deserve to be recognised with their own Golden Handbag category.

For the first time this year and to reflect the changing nature of the commercial LGBT+ scene a Golden Handbag for the Favourite Mixed Venue is being introduced.

Over the last two years we have honed the voting to a fine art. Last year the 6 people who tried to cheat and break through our firewall were quietly disqualified. This year we won’t be so charitable with anyone who attempts to cheat by multiple voting.

Gscene editor, James Ledward, said: “For many people a Golden Handbag Award is more than a piece of paper, it is recognition of years of work serving the city’s many and varied LGBT+ communities.”

If you want to nominate a volunteer or worker at a voluntary sector LGBT+ organisation or a long serving member of staff at a commercial venue for one of the special awards (these include the Straight Allies Award, Fundraising Award and Lifetime Achievement Award), email your suggestions and nominations to info@gscene.com by Monday, May 22.

Winners will be announced at a star studded ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on Sunday, June 11 at 7.30pm.

Lola Lasagne who will be your host on the evening, added: “Keep your campaigns clean and fair and remember you get a Golden Handbag not because you want one but because you deserve one.”

To vote in the Golden Handbags 2017, click here: 

Closing date for voting is Monday, May 29 at midnight.

Winners will be announced at a star studded ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on Sunday, June 11 at 7.30pm.

Tickets costing £20 are available from Prowler in St James Street, Brighton from Tuesday, May 2.

There are two VIP tables left costing £240 for 12 people. To book email: info@gscene.com or telephone: 07730 777290

 

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