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Author: Brian Butler

Two ground-breaking queer shows from Alexis Gregory

Posted on by Brian Butler

There’s a chance to see multi-talented queer theatre-maker Alexis Gregory’s latest monodrama Smoke and also catch his amazing three-in-one queer history drama Riot Act – both in London over the next few weeks.

Directed by the outstanding film and theatre-maker Campbell X, Smoke investigates the blur between reality and fantasy. It’s full of dark humour, like all Alexis’s work, but this time also suspense.

We follow Alex, his mobile phone and his story. He’s haunted by an ex-partner, when he receives a private Instagram message from his now-dead boyfriend’s account.

Smoke

Alex finds himself in a haphazard and dangerous attempt to uncover the truth. The play confronts today’s obsession with self-documentation, drugs, paranoia and living and dying in a digital age. When privacy no longer exists, where do we draw the line?

It runs late night at the Kings Head Theatre, Islington from November 2-11. Tickets HERE 

Riot Act

On December 1, World AIDS Day, there’s a rare opportunity to see Alexis’s staggering Riot Act, which is a solo verbatim show created entirely from interviews with three key players in the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

They are: Michel-Anthony Nozzi, a survivor of the Stonewall Riots; Lavinia Co-op, an alternative ’70s drag artist; and Paul Burston, a prominent ’90s London AIDS activist.

I’ve only seen it online but it’s funny, breathtaking and a white knuckle ride through six decades of queer history.

Tickets at eventbrite – it plays at 21Soho for one night only and is presented by Mulwade Foundation.

Both shows will be reviewed in Scene magazine – look out for them.

REVIEW: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ @ Theatre Royal Brighton

Posted on by Brian Butler

Evan Hansen is an isolated high school student with no friends and no life and on medication for social anxiety disorder- and he’s fallen out of a tree and broken his arm, now in plaster.

When his doctor prescribes that he writes a daily letter to himself – hence the show title Dear Evan Hansen – he is meant to say how good that day is going to be.

This simple letter writing device is the start of a spiralling story of deceit, loneliness, suicide and the search for connection that we can all resonate with.

A couple of brutal encounters with school bully and weirdo Connor are suddenly followed by Connor’s offstage suicide, but not before Connor snatches Evan’s letter which refers ambiguously to Connor’s sister Zoe and before he sarcastically signs Evan’s plaster cast as if they were best friends.

So the scene is set for Evan to try and connect – by inventing a deep friendship with Connor and with the help of two pupils fabricating a backstory of countless emails between the two – even suggesting a gay relationship at one point though this is abandoned as an idea.

Evan inveigles himself into Connor’s family, who almost adopt him as a replacement Connor, but the whole edifice unravels as it gets more and more complex.

And that’s the story – more or less. What makes this an an award-winning, must-see show is the central performance – here played brilliantly by Ryan Kopel, the soaring words and music of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and the twisty turns of Steven Levenson’s book.

Morgan Large’s set is a miracle of frosted glass panels that slide across the back of the stage, and mirrors above and at the sides that break up the images of the characters much as their lives are breaking up. The multi-tiered screens depicting the viral and vile nature of the internet dominate from time to time and are breathtaking.

There’s a good supporting cast as Evan’s sometimes neglectful but struggling, single mother Heidi (Alice Fearn), Connor’s mother (Helen Anker), and notably love interest Zoe played at first raggedly and then lovingly by Lauren Conroy. Her angry song Requiem is one of several showstoppers.

Killian Thomas Lefevre as Connor mellows after death when he returns as a kind of puppet character manipulated by Evan and family friend – not real friend – Jared (played for full laughs by Tom Dickerson).

But on Ryan Kopel’s shoulders – which are mostly tensed up under his chin, rests the success of the show. His high-pitched singing voice adds to his vulnerability. I saw the Broadway original with Ben Platt, but this Evan, deftly directed by Adam Penford, presents a much more likeable character. Shy, in pain, damaged but always kind of loveable.

In his big Act One closer You Will Be Found he doesn’t disappoint, and while the show’s abrupt ending is for me less than satisfying – this is a  smash hit musical for our age of fake news and the uncontrollable hatred we see daily on social media that will run and run – and I give it 4 out of 5 stars for that.

Dear Evan Hansen plays at Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday, 19 October. More information HERE

REVIEW: It’s Just A Stage at The Coast Is Queer

Posted on by Brian Butler

The absolute cream of queer theatre-making assembled in Brighton as part of The Coast Is Queer literary festival.

Olivier Award-winners Debbie Hannan and Matilda Feyisayo Ibini were joined by multi-talented actor, writer, director Alexis Gregory and trans actor/writer Charlie Josephine in a panel discussion called It’s Just A Stage.

Debbie, National Theatre of Scotland Associate Director, moderated the panel and kicked off by saying: ”queer writers and performers are at the vanguard of untold stories.”

The panel was asked when queer themes first showed up in their writings. Matilda said it was their third play: “I’m a late bloomer. I came out on my 30th birthday, but queerness has always been an underlying theme – like my play about a girl being bullied and I only hinted why.

“Often my queer plays didn’t go anywhere, and my plays with hetero characters got performed. I bridged the gap by writing about the journey towards queerness, coming out stories are actually really boring. We have rich histories and intersections which are much more interesting. Queer writers are ahead of the game.”

Charlie Josephine, writer of Cowbois for the RSC and I, Joan for Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “I was writing about queerness long before I spotted it. I was feeling feminine angst and still do. It took me a while to come into alignment with myself. My subconscious writing is way smarter than myself.  The art got better when it was queer; and then I got caught up in the cultural wars about being trans and the art got better.”

Alexis Gregory, actor-creator of monodramas Riot Act and FutureQueer, said queerness had always been in his writing. When his child acting became adolescent acting it was the ’90s and ’00s. “It was difficult to be an out actor at that time. You were trapped. Now drama students graduate and are already out. It wasn’t till 2018/19 that queer stories became more mainstream.”

Debbie then asked what the queer form meant to the writers/performers. Matilda described her form as “magical realism. It’s to challenge the binaries of life. I grew up in a Christian Nigerian household with a fixed view about disability (Matilda is now in a wheelchair due to a form of muscular dystrophy).

“Challenge what you see and the narratives we are given. I need to get out of the real world of imposed ideologies,” she explained as her reason for writing magical stories.

Alexis added that he had consciously chosen to write in different forms – including Ted talk and stand-up. “My plays have a form which is queer.”

Charlie added: “I write in different forms: it’s a bit of a mess to be honest. I’m learning still. I take a rich classic structure and then break the rules and queer them with confidence. I’m confused about what form is – if writing is eggs, then are they fried, or scrambled? – sorry for the vegans in the room.”

Charlie cited Pinter’s pay Betrayal which goes backwards – they said because when betrayed you go backwards over your life. In their play Cowbois, the central character is a trans masc gunslinger who everybody wants and then they don’t when they find out the truth.

Alexis suggested a reluctance to produce gay stories, the attitude being “oh we’ve done that story, and we don’t need to do it again.”

Charlie also revealed they write for five specific people and what they think about the work: “I can’t invest in what everyone cares about it.”

Matilda said: “I’m clear on everything I write who it’s for. I’m saying it’s not all hopelessness living in a black, queer disabled body. I tell the story first to myself and ask can I defend the story? I don’t want to write about stereotypes or have harmful narratives.”

Asked if there needs to be broad audience appeal in queer theatre, Alexis promptly said no. “there’s a queer audience and a straight audience at my shows and that’s happened organically. Why be restrained by the need for respectability? A show doesn’t have to be for everyone. I don’t want to beg for acceptance.”

Asked for their wishes and hopes for the future of queer theatre, Charlie said: “shit hot theatre made with kindness and curiosity.” Matilda was looking for theatre managements to speak up and protect their artists and look after their wellbeing and safeguarding. “Theatre can’t be a neutral space.” Debbie wanted arts funding to be restored and for queer stories to be out there. “It’s culturally acceptable not to be warm to trans people but trans people are here.”

Prompted by that I asked from my audience seat why there’s a growing number of trans characters and performers in films but not on the stage – with the notable exception of Charlie’s Cowbois.

And there was no great answer from the panel – Charlie admitted they didn’t know the reason and Debbie said the breakthrough hadn’t come yet.

It’s Just A Stage was at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts.

Look out for my preview of Alexis’s new queer play Smoke coming soon to Scene magazine.

Palestinian filmmaker Dima Hamdan wins prestigious LGBTQ+ film prize for ‘Blood Like Water’

Posted on by Brian Butler

Dima Hamdan, a Palestinian filmmaker and journalist, has won the prestigious Iris Prize, supported by the Michael Bishop Foundation, for her short film Blood Like Water.

Based in Berlin, Dima’s film Blood Like Water tells the story of Shadi, who embarks on a secret adventure and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices: either collaborate with the Israeli occupation or be shamed and humiliated by their own people.

Dima said: “I am deeply honoured to receive the Iris Prize – not only because it is the Oscar of the LGBTQ+ film world but also because it comes from a community that has increasingly voiced its support for Palestine in recent years.

“There is no pride on the streets of Tel Aviv when vulnerable gay men are blackmailed, violated and coerced into betraying their communities and even killed. 

“Today there is no pride when an Israeli soldier clad in full military gear waves the rainbow flag over the ruins of our people’s homes in Gaza.” 

Louisa Connolly-Burnham won the Best British Short Film prize, sponsored by film4 for Sister Wives.

Louisa, who founded Thimble Films in 2019, wrote, directed, produced and starred in Sister Wives alongside BAFTA-winner Mia McKenna-Bruce. It’s a multi-layered love story that tells the tale of two young women living in a strict, fundamentalist, polyamorous society in 2013 Utah, USA.

Hove-based Channel 4 executive Tim Highsted, chair of the jury for this short film prize, said: “It’s a beautifully nuanced and performed drama about two women rebelling against their community’s social and religious constraints and finding love for each other.” 

Channel 4 will be streaming all 15 shortlisted Best British short films in a series of groups – check out the channel. Look out for reviews of the films coming soon to Scene magazine. 

REVIEW: Dave Lynn and Allan Cardew bring ‘John and Thomas’ to life

Posted on by Brian Butler

There’s many a double act that split – through ill health, retirement or death – and there’s sometimes a sense of not knowing how the remaining partner feels.

And that’s a central theme of Andrew Kay’s latest play John and Thomas. But this 50-minute gem is so much more than that.

John (Allan Cardew) is long retired from the drag double act. His lifetime partner on and off stage Thomas (Dave Lynn), far from packing away his wigs and heels, wants John to re-join the act. 

And so Kay sets up a tension between the two men that bubbles away but never quite boils over. This was a rehearsed reading, for a very special cause – of which more later – but that belittles the strong stage presence of the characters and the deft and sensitive direction by Carole Todd.

In a world full of f and c words, Kay’s humour is warm, joyful, bitchy and nostalgic. He has a skillful eye for the sad/funny nuances of a mature man fighting against the onslaught of time on body and mind.  

To stir up the action, Kay injects a third character – the young Adam – an aspiring drag queen who wants to be mentored. Though he has approached Thomas, it’s John who takes up the challenge, and before we know it, Adams trousers are round his ankles – but no it’s not what you’re thinking. 

Anyway, what are you thinking? This is a delightful show full of the interplay of double entendres, innuendo and wicked asides. Allan Cardew, in particular, has knowing glances, raised eyebrows and brilliant comic timing for his many punchlines. 

Dave Lynn is more the straight man – straight? – whose good looks and good legs made him John’s match onstage. I would like to have seen the friction between the two leads to be made darker: I wanted some risk, some jeopardy – maybe involving young Adam. 

But this is a play in development and now Andrew has seen it in the flesh on stage I’m guessing there’ll be changes made. Certainly Adam (played with touching naivety by Nathan Croft) needs to appear earlier and be given more to do. But that’s just my opinion.

The show was full of nostalgia for another reason. Allan’s part was originally written for community champion, actor drag star extraordinaire Jason Sutton (Miss Jason), who died before he could play it. 

The proceeds from the show will fund an annual LGBTQ+ play competition, the Jason Sutton Prize, a fitting tribute to a great entertainer who brought much joy to Brighton and beyond.

John and Thomas was staged at Horatio’s, Palace Pier as part of PierFest.

First image by Julia Claxton

Iris Prize Film Festival kicks off this week in Cardiff

Posted on by Brian Butler

Pic: Sunflower (Australia, 2023)

The 18th internationally acclaimed LGBTQ+ Iris Prize Film Festival kicks off this week in Cardiff but you, like me, will have the chance to catch some of its best bits online.

The festival runs 8-12 October, and alongside its full-length feature films, there are many engaging shorts to enjoy if you buy a £10 online pass.

There are nine groups of shorts, and some bonuses, and you can see them at home on your screen until the end of the month.

Among the nine collections I picked out:

The Past Into Focus

The Past Into Focus: a search for a grandmother’s lost lover, returning to your childhood town after loss, and confronting the person who made your school life miserable all feature in this package.

Roots features short films about: a history of writing religious romance, being trans in a secluded farming community – looking at links between the past and the present that shape you and your choices.

Happy In Your Own Skin features movies on conversion therapy, navigating cultural expectations with a sex worker, and emerging into your new self- different journeys of accepting yourself.

Take A Chance On Me

Take A Chance On Me features stories about an emotional catch-up phone call, a new business venture, a rocky road trip: all films that explore the line between being friends and the desire for something deeper.

Dangerous Liaisons features a story of an actor and a cowboy, two trans women who cross paths, a journalist facing the wrath of the internet and an old cellist.

Lived Trans Lives explores gender and togetherness.

Resilience covers lesbian island rebellion, a woman in crisis and an emotional reunion.

Forbidden Fruit deals with films about a young girl discovering herself through dance, an animated journey through transition, how to deal with dates and a light-hearted exploration of bodies.

Online passes and further film information at irisprize.org.

Rehearsed reading of Andrew Kay play ‘John and Thomas’ with Dave Lynn and Allan Cardew to raise funds for new LGBTQ+ drama prize in honour of Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason

Posted on by Brian Butler

It’s several decades since drag performer Dave Lynn first met then amateur actor Allan Cardew at Marilyn’s club behind Brighton station.

Since then, they’ve shared the stage in many a gay-themed play and Allan has gone on to be a director and producer – most recently of the alternative panto.

And so, they’ll reunite onstage next week (October 8) at a rehearsed reading of Andrew Kay’s new play John and Thomas.

Both have a long history of working with the late Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason – and indeed the play was written for him and Dave Lynn to perform. So there’ll be poignant moments and floods of memories.

Proceeds from the reading on the Palace Pier as part of PierFest, will help create an annual LGBTQ+ playwriting competition in Jason’s name.

But back to Dave and Allan. I caught up with them recently and talked about their times together onstage. Their first play together was Boys In The Band, which also featured Maisie Trollette, and it raised money – as did many of their shows – for Brighton Cares. It was 1992 and at the Pavilion Theatre.

Dave told me he’d done some theatre work before that at acting school before turning to drag. The play was famously revived in 2015 with drag performers. Following Dave’s appearance on Coronation Street, it was back to the stage with Allan in Bent at Brighton Little Theatre, and so over the years it’s gone on – Torch Song Trilogy, My Night With Reg and Entertaining Mr Sloane being notable examples.

“We did lots, but everyone enjoyed it,” Dave told me. He and Allan played brother and sister in Sloane, with Dave in the part made famous by Beryl Reid.

And it’s clear they’re full of admiration for each other. Allan told me: “Dave is such a wonderful actor to work with; he gives so much.” Dave replies: “I’ve learned so much from Allan.” They’re both looking forward to John and Thomas but it’s an event tinged with sadness because of the passing of their friend Jason. A previous Kay play Morning Glory was written for Jason but when it was revived he was indisposed and Allan stepped in at the last moment, shedding his director’s hat to play the solo role.

Now he’s standing in for Jason again: “I feel really privileged to be doing it,” he said. John and Thomas features two drag performers in a double act, which one has retired from, but which the other wants to resurrect.

There’s a strong hope that it will be fully staged in the near future, but in the meantime, there’ll be many a fond memory of Jason rekindled next week.

Tickets are still available at wegottickets and look out for my review in Scene magazine.

The Coast Is Queer, Brighton’s well-established festival of LGBTQ+ writing, returns this year from 10-13 October

Posted on by Brian Butler

The Coast Is Queer, Brighton’s well-established festival of LGBTQ+ writing, returns this year from 10-13 October with conversations, panels, workshops, performance and films, celebrating queer writing.

It was the first festival of its kind in the UK, and it’s once again at the Attenborough Centre for The Creative Arts, creating a space for queer readers, writers and allies to come together.

The organisers said: “History teaches us that liberation is not a straight line. It is an ongoing struggle that can move backwards as well as forwards. The attack on trans rights underway in the UK, and the growing suppression of LGBTQ+ stories in the form of book bans around the world is yet more evidence that we need to come together to champion our stories and our story-tellers, more than ever.”

The opening event on 10 October celebrates 30 years of DIVA magazine, with DIVA’s Rocky Bourdillon, Gay Times’ Reeta Loi, and Attitude’s Matthew Todd, all in conversation with journalist, historian and activist Paula Akpan.

On October 11, the events, partly curated by Sussex University students include panels exploring queer fantasy writing, and queer stories for multiple generations. Other topics include politics and hope and queer nightlife. The day ends with a poetry open mic session with AFLO the poet.

The following day’s sessions include writing for performance, environmental writers, queer parenting and sex, lust and romance. The day also features a screening of Salem Haddad’s film Marco.

Kuchenga Shenjé and Juno Dawson

Novelist, screenwriter and Sunday Times best seller list’s Juno Dawson has another edition of her Lovely Trans Literary Salon with Kuchenga Shenjé, and the day culminates with David Hoyle Does The Classics Cabaret.

The final day celebrates James Baldwin’s life and work, chaired by Campbell X, and ends with Radical Hope – a smorgasbord of spoken word, performance and films.

Throughout the festival there’ll be the best new queer films to watch, and Kemptown Books will be on hand for browsing and buying the best of queer literature.

Tickets and more information HERE

REVIEW: ‘Why Am I So Single?’ at Garrick Theatre

Posted on by Brian Butler

The creators of smash hit musical SIX, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, have done it again with their new show for the Gen Z age – Why Am I So Single?.

Where SIX was all about girl power, this show delves deep into a specific personal relationship and is said to be semi-autobiographical.

It breaks ground being the first time a non-binary character has been the lead role in a West End musical. Add to that Jo Foster, who plays Oliver is non-binary, and so is co-creator Marlow.

Harking back to Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland’s “let’s do the show right here”, the writers take away the fourth wall and Oliver and best friend Nancy talk to us direct about their latest project – to write a big fancy musical.

So, once we get over the double idea of show within show, it’s down to the mechanics of writing. Complete with storyboard full of post-its they explore their loveless lives to provide the answer to the show’s title.

Photo by Danny Kaan

Marlow and Moss have two important motifs to help us and their characters along the way: an obsession with TV series Friends and the “I got off the plane” episode where Rachel comes back to Ross, and secondly the musical Oliver!.

Hence Oliver and Nancy as our principals, and some lame other name checks – agent Fay Gin, and new buddy Artie – or Art Full-Dodger.

This is important because these two flimsy things are at the core of their rather boring sofa-bound existence. Helping them along the way in the cleverest idea of the night are a singing and dancing ensemble who double as Oliver’s fridge, pot plant, curtains, coat rack and dustbin. Trust me it’s funny and it works in a warm emotional kind of way.

There are big musical numbers to develop the arc of Oliver and Nancy’s stories, which depend on social media and dating apps.

Stand-outs are Meet Market, 8 Dates and C U Never, which gives us Artie (Noah Thomas) and ensemble tapping their feet as they tap away on their phones rejecting hard to-get dates. Meet Market – get the pun? – is highlighted with our two stars wheeling prospective dates round in shopping trolleys.

Just In Case is, for me, the highlight song of lost love, but it’s matched in Act Two with the heart-rending Lost – both delivered with tenderness and guts by Leesa Tulley’s Nancy.

Photo by Danny Kaan

But ultimately this is Oliver’s story and non-binary performer Jo Foster makes us laugh and cry with their enormous sense of good fun, timing and a belting voice.

In a short red kilt – “It’s not a skirt,” they tell us – they transform at one moment into a Marilyn Monroe flowing gown for a sensational pastiche song and dance number with a chorus of pizza delivery boys.

And in Act Two they have a queer recognition anthem Disco Ball, which has strong resonances to that other queer musical Jamie.

There are diversions that don’t work, like the melodramatic song and dance about a bee loose in the flat, and the show overall is about 20 minutes too long for my liking.

I’d like more of the inner life of a non-binary single person, and a bit less whingeing, but I am absolutely sure this is going to be a great hit with the younger audience it is clearly aimed at. For that it gets four stars. And we do eventually find out why they’re single but I’m not telling.

And to finish on the Oliver theme: Consider Yourself lucky I told you it would be a hit and don’t say in a few weeks’ time I’d Do Anything to get a ticket.

The show is playing at London’s Garrick Theatre. Tickets HERE

All pics by Danny Kaan

Multi-award-winning theatre director Andrew Keates to launch Queer Theatre to tell LGBTQ+ stories and nurture queer talent

Posted on by Brian Butler

Pic credit: Boyan Geordiev

A year ago, multi-award-winning theatre director Andrew Keates woke up in a shed at the bottom of a garden pumped full of drugs and on the brink of a heart attack after being sexually assaulted by two men.

Now a year sober, he has now launched Queer Theatre, a London-based LGBTQ+ theatre and production company; proud to tell LGBTQ+ stories and unashamedly committed to nurturing queer talent.

For 38-year-old Andrew this new venture sums up what he wants to give back to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for queer performers and theatre-makers, who often feel isolated.

At its launch on Thursday, 12 September at the iconic Two Brewers in Clapham, he unveiled a series of strands to this new venture, “Every Monday evening, we’ll host weekly acting classes where queer individuals can learn, experiment, and grow together. These sessions will focus on exploring queer material and issues, with the aim of building a strong community of LGBTQ+ performers.”

Future plans include a collaboration with The Groucho Club to create a queer networking event for LGBTQ+ creatives called Luvvie, knowingly named after the term coined by Queer Theatre’s patron and gay icon Stephen Fry.

They plan to offer queer scratch and comedy nights, showcases and next year Andrew hopes to mount a queer playwriting festival  for new LGBTQ+ work and his highly successful podcast, the Show People Podcast is being relaunched as a live show at the historic Nell of Old Drury pub, opposite Theatre Royal Drury Lane. And that’s just the beginning!

More info HERE

Look out for my no-holds barred interview feature with Andrew coming soon

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