Red Carpet and Bloolips

I just booked tickets for our gang to attend a very special event indeed. That iconic figure Bette Bourne will be inducted into the House of Homosexual Culture Hall of Fame on 30 May...

This fabulous description of the grand dame featured in The Guardian:

"On stage and off, Bette Bourne is the embodiment of a certain tradition of British camp. Even making a cup of coffee in the kitchen of his west London flat, he wears scarlet lipstick, eyeshadow and a funny hat, from under which his curly mop of hair protrudes in every direction. In performance, either with his own company or as an actor for hire, he tap-dances, delivers caustic one-liners and wears enough paint to make a good start on the Forth Bridge."

Bette was a founder member of the Bloolips Queer Theatre troupe, whose anarchic brand of camp was a big hit on "the circuit" during the 1980s, and has progressed since their demise to become an award-winning (if still avant garde) actor - he portrayed his friend Quentin Crisp in the hit play Resident Alien, and appeared as the fat queen with the poodles in the stage adaptation of Theatre of Blood with Jim Broadbent a couple of years ago.

On the evening of the award we will also see Bette in Rock, a new play all about the machinations that went on in the 1950s to protect the true sexual identity of the young Rock Hudson. He/she plays Henry Willson, the man who made him a star; the most unscrupulous agent in Los Angeles.

Bette Bourne deserves this accolade, having played every bit as important a role in our gay history as the more mainstream players. It is also an excuse to get our best bib and tucker on for what is described as a "Red Carpet Event" - I can't wait!

Camp, moi?

Bette Bourne

The play "Rock" at the Oval House Theatre

Bette Bourne interviewed in The Guardian in 2005