queersDarkroom by Gentle Giant Theatre Company is a strange beast. Brought to see it by a friend, I only knew what I read in the Fringe Festival programme:
DC and Marvel superheroes and supervillains face extinction. The Anarchic Invincibility Deficiency Syndrome unmasks masked idols and Supermen fade to grey. When the world falls darker than Joker’s [...]
New Yorker Taylor Mac played on Sunday at the Project, a benefit for Belong2, in a wonderfully life-affirming performance art piece – or, as he would describe it, a play. This was entertainment using play in all its meanings: child’s play, theatrical play, sex play, wordplay. Highly intelligent and fluidly articulate, musically gifted and haunting, [...]
I was forwarded this letter today, about Ian Paisley Jr’s comments on homosexuality in Hot Press, suggesting that people write in to The Irish Times to respond. I would point out that in October 2006, 84% of people in the Republic support legal recognition for same-sex relationships. And that the majority support gay marriage in [...]
27th May 2007
I’ve had a very enjoyable couple of weeks re-engaging with the notion of gay “community”, by going to see nine different plays and shows in the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, out of about thirty which were on offer over the fortnight. As regular readers of this column will be aware, the concept [...]
One of the most exciting things about theatre is the immediacy of the experience, the creative tension between performers and audience. It’s a double-edged sword, though, compared to other artistic endeavours – while we may relish the exhilaration of being pinned to our seats and having our senses stimulated, it can also backfire, and a [...]
Brian Merriman, artistic director of the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, introduced Who Does She Think She Is? as one of the most radical productions on offer in the festival: the first transgender musical in Ireland. It was a one-off show, on in the back of the Front Lounge, free to all, and done in the [...]
Jack the Lad, by Matt Harris, is one of the queerest theatrical experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Hard-edged, disturbing, sexual, at times baffling, shocking and a little trippy, Harris has mangled the Jack and the Beanstalk children’s story and turned it into a deliciously deviant 75-minute nightmare.This Jack, a practiced, jaded, driven rent-boy, unforgettably played by [...]
I’m looking forward to being in Dublin in May for the first time since the annual International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival started in 2004. There are some plays in the programme I have high hopes for.
Of particular interest to me will be Jack, The Lad, a rent boy’s journey of self-discovery, Dream Man which is [...]
A poem written and performed for “Love Poetry Hate Racism” at Crawdaddy Dublin on 22nd April 2007. I had a cold so it sounds a bit gravelly but it kinda suits it.
Listen:
(Not to mislead anyone: this isn’t a poem about racism, it’s an explicit, robust, no-holds-barred 8-minute long queer performance piece.)
I’ve just come from a funeral Mass. It wasn’t someone I was close to, but someone whom I’ve known since boyhood, a kind and funny man. I was glad to pay my respects. And, as he was a lifelong member of a choir, they raised the roof in a poignant melodic tribute.Since my teenage years, [...]
Interesting
