“This year’s Pride was a celebration of love, but we still have a long way to go to encompass and support the entire community”
Due to a mix of scheduling errors and general anxiety over my place within the community, over my three years in London I have never been to the Pride in London celebrations. So this year, invited by some wonderful friends from the Arcola to march in the parade with Hackney Council, I decided to finally brave the crowds and show my support by representing and the LGBTQIA+ community in the creative industries – and I can genuinely say that it was one of the best days of my life.
“following my newly-found dream of being a queer version of Helena Bonham Carter”
In the creative industries, the subject of politics has to be very carefully navigated; whether its a funding application or the sexist undertones of the casting process, being a queer feminist doesn’t always go down well, and it is often necessary to ‘quieten the queer’ in order to earn more mainstream and traditional castings. However, over the last year I have had the fortune of becoming involved with the Arcola Queer Collective, a performance collective dedicated to exploring queer identity and its theatrical representations; a place where I am lucky enough to be encouraged and inspired by strong queer performers, as I attempt to figure out my own identity, searching for my place within the community and following my newly-found dream of being a queer version of Helena Bonham Carter.
Pride plays an incredibly important role in bringing queer stories to the mainstream through a huge variety of art forms; the National Theatre’s ‘Queer Theatre’ programme brings LGBTQIA+ stories to the forefront of the national stage, the DIVA sponsored women’s stage features female acts that have long been relegated, due to the lack of sponsorship and closing of endless queer female spaces. But there is still so much work to be done. This year’s Pride was a celebration of love, of course, but with corporate sponsorship permeating the parade and issues surrounding the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in their marketing campaigns, many of us recognise that Pride in London still has much further to go.
Walking alongside my friends and colleagues, queer activists and artists, in the Pride parade was one of the most wonderful moments of my time in London. it is the first time that I have genuinely felt comfortable, celebrated, welcomed and supported as a Queer Artist, and I can’t help but hope that the warmth of that security that I was so lucky to feel, my pride in both my politics and myself, can extend to encompass and support the entire community, in all it’s complexity and beauty, equally, fairly and proudly.
Between the 10th and 22nd July, The King’s Head Theatre will be opening its doors to Festival 47, three weeks of new writing from “the UK’s most exciting, bold and ambitious emerging companies”. One of those companies is Off The Middle who will be showcasing their new spoof murder-mystery, Lead Suspect. We asked writer and director Stephanie Withers about the show and about Off The Middle’s plans for “exciting, playful and relevant new writing” …
As a company we are really interested in playing with the audience and performer relationship. We want the audience to be more actively engaged, to have a more personal connection to the performers and story.
Celeste Dodwell and Matthew Seager in the company’s critically acclaimed ‘In Other Words’ (Photo – Alex Fine)
For ‘In Other Words’ we did this in an intimate way; the audience were lit during the show, actors spoke to them frankly and openly, and they sat so close to the actors it made them feel like they were in our characters front room. For ‘Lead Suspect’ it is a more playful dynamic, where the audience are referenced throughout, and often lend a helping hand to our actors onstage.
Lead Suspect – Rehearsals
Though the two subject matters couldn’t be further apart; a moving love story concerning a couple’s experience of Alzheimer’s disease, and a spoof murder-mystery where actors play dogs who solve the crime, we know both shows are rooted in playfulness, creative storytelling, and celebrate the live-ness of theatre.
At the moment telling stories through creative means is something that really interests us, whether that’s through actors playing dogs, or doing a play that spans a 50 year timeframe within an hour, we want to make theatre that provokes creativity and sparks an audiences imagination.
Lead Suspect is a show inspired by the curious case of the 2015 Crufts dog show poisoning. In this unique comedy dog murder mystery actors tell us the story through the eyes of the canine competitors, and solve the crime. Join unlikely hero Scott the Scottish Terrier as he investigates and asks the age old question, was it the Pug or the Poodle?
LEAD SUSPECT
is at the King’s Head Theatre from the 17th to 20th July
To get your paws on limited £10 tickets add code ‘doggystyle’ if you have a valid student card, or upload a picture of yourself and a canine friend to @OTM_Theatre with #leadsuspect, for a separate £10 code
Lead Suspect – Rehearsals
