Brownton Abbey
At Brighton Dome
Friday, May 25 2018
BROWNTON Abbey was the Brighton Festival’s first collaboration with stalwarts of the Trans, Queer and poc scene the crew from The Marlborough.
Seeing the Dome dressed up with UV lights, carnival streamers, balloons with the most superb little fringes just floating around like jellyfish with attitude and projections and visuals felt like stepping into a QTIPOC community festival, but in the glazed rococo madness of the Dome’s superb spaces. We’d expected something a little more sit-down-and-watch performance based so had arrived early and were lucky, the dance floor was gathering groups of bopping chatting folks, the Dj’s were already going, the place was inviting and people were flowing in and there was a strong black and queer aesthetic going down.
Darling of the demi-monde and stylistically experimental choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe kicked off with a joyful set of dances & movements where they seemed to be having as much fun as they were being serious and circled the dance floor purifying it and us with a thick smoking and fragrant smudge stick. Rachel Young’s performance was a deep exploration of afro-futurist visual movement with a strong wink in the direction of Grace Jones and then – f’k me! Lasana Shabazz’s utterly fierce dance which felt like a blast furnace sanctification from a Candomblé possessed priest. Decked out in floor length Aztec feathered cape with jewelled mask and leather harness, boots and shimmering trimming of blue black-feathers, he was demented. We – feeling blessed & initiated – were blown away by it. Costume, frenzy, ritual, we felt in the presence of something profound, then the music kicked off and back we were, we wanted more but Shabazz was done with us. He took my heart with him, still beating between his teeth.
Headlining in more than one way was New Orleans ‘Queen of Bounce’ Big Freedia and Tony, the dancer who was electric, never being still for a moment and bouncing their way up and down the stage to the audiences delight, a fair few of whom ended up on stage, invited by Big Freedia who explained was without the usual entourage, having come over the Brighton to treat us all. Big Freedia touched on working with RuPaul and Beyoncé.
The audience responded, poured onto the stage to do a kind of conga bounce, a lot, lot cooler and funnier than it sounds. There were plenty of very interesting people mixing around, some unlikely, some of the usual crowd and a lot of younger, happy folk up for something interesting, engaging and celebrating the otherness all of this mixed effortlessly in with live DJ sets. Certainly the kind of crowd any Festival worth it’s salt would want to attract.
We also got to share a queer ritual from Ria Hartley who took us though an intimate ceremony opening our chakras, bringing us to perfect moment of interconnected oneness and with a refreshingly fun but serious edge to it. Based on West African Yoruba rituals but reinterpreted for the evening this felt like a real extra delight to the hedonistic fun going on in the rest of the dome. My older cis hetro friends who had (surprisingly) come along for the evening raved about Brownton and especially Ria all weekend!
Brownton Abbey felt like the seed of a whole festival, like being there on the magical night it all started and as we wandered out, glittered, marked with UV tribal face marking and a gilded shimmering golden face fringe we breathed the cool air of a Brighton night and thanked our lucky gods to be living in a city where a space like Brownton can be gouged out in the heart of a huge international festival. Well done all concerned.
For full details of the event, click here: