Life’s a bitch… why not become one?

Our friend Alexis Gregory is a man of many talents. We first met him as one of the hot barmen at our long-gone favourite gay haunt BarCode Soho and have followed his progress ever since; his performance as go-go dancer for Stewart Who's faboo "anthem" Bitch; and the fruition of his career as an actor - we saw him in the play Stonewall back in 2007; he has since appeared in the gay-themed films Kick Off and Fit (and he has had bit-parts in Casualty and The Bill, to boot).


We always thought he was male model material

Now he has turned his hand to play-writing, and it was to the début of his first play Slap that John-John and I ventured to sunny Stratford (home of the 2012 Olympics) last night - it was a tour-de-force!

Unusually for a drama, we were actually seated within the set itself - the "Hollywood-meets-Stepney" flat of pre-op trans call-girl Dominique (Lexi himself, in basque, fishnets and dangerously high heels throughout). And, at various times through the story, Dominique plonks herself down next to or drapes herself over the startled audience...

On reading the synopsis - "Life’s a bitch… why not become one? Welcome to the world of Dominique, a glamorous transsexual hooker in the throes of an emotional meltdown, caught between a rock and hard face, juggling a stalker client with a crush and her cute, chavved out, drugged up boyf who hasn’t got out the bath in a week." - one might have been forgiven for thinking this might be an exercise in high camp satire or a bit of soap-opera, but, despite its moments of humour (and indeed the bitchy flouncing of Dominique), Slap is a deep and though-provoking piece, full of delicious convolutions between the present and past and the real back-stories of the three main characters. Indeed, the big "twist" near the end, and the play's eventual shocking denouement had the whole audience - us included - gasping!

All three actors are utterly superb. Lexi's Dominique, all strut and swagger, gives over an air of being completely in control - but the cracks begin to show as the truth begins to unravel. Former Eastenders child actor Frankie Fitzgerald is convincingly dodgy and vulnerable in turn as the druggy, fucked-up "boyfriend" Danny - but just why is he permanently in that bath?; all becomes clear eventually... And the marvellous Nigel Fairs - whose own one-man bravura performance in Didn't You Used To Be Derek Jacobi? we loved so much last year - as the poor, put-upon "posh punter" John is a perfect foil for the domestic drama going on in front of him (and turns out to be the only one to see through all the role-playing in the end).

For a début play as a writer, Lexi deserves every award going for this - and I sincerely hope it is eventually made into a film (Channel 4 has already hosted a "workshop" performance at its studios, but the cameras weren't rolling at the time). Slap's director Rikki Beadle-Blair has had past success in this area (his original - and according to critics, superior to the recent Roland Emmerich film - Stonewall movie was a hit back in 1995), after all.

It was an experience I will remember for a very long time...

Slap is only on until Saturday 10th October at the Theatre Royal Stratford East - so you'd better be quick! It's definitely worth it.

Sexy redheads, Restoration grimacing, Viv Stanishall's sausages and a Ferret

It was the first Polari of 2012 on Thursday, and yet again our host (and sometime semi-nude photographic poseur) Mr Paul Burston pulled out all the stops to give us a wonderful evening of literary high camp!

Arriving on stage fully clothed (and sickeningly tanned) with a tack-o-rama souvenir brolly from his recent holiday in Brazil with hubby Paulo, we knew it wouldn't be long before he could no longer resist the temptation to strip for our star-studded audience. However, there was another "peerless gay literary salon" to introduce first...



Our opening speaker was the lovely Anthony McDonald, author of the books Adam and Blue Sky Adam (extracts from which he read for us at Polari back in June 2009). His new book emerged out of a real-life obsession with a redhead stranger on a train, and the passage he read involved the burgeoning relationship between such strangers - the older (slightly autobiographical) Oliver and the younger, ostensibly straight Orlando - and their adventures in Malaga. It seems like a great story! Getting Orlando is available from BigFib books.



The ebullient Mr Rikki Beadle-Blair is a true drama queen - the man responsible for Stonewall - The Musical (which we went to see at the Pleasance Theatre back in 2007), the TV series Metrosexuality and numerous theatrical productions, in many of which he starred as well as produced. As well as having a long history in drama and gay activism, he is also an avid poster of "Things I Learned Today" on Facebook, which apparently have become so popular he has collected them all into a "self-help" book of the same name. It was this he decided to focus his reading on - and encouraged a lively and interesting audience debate session in the process! I found it fascinating (if a little reminiscent of Sigourney Weaver's cameo role in Jeffrey).



"Pox, say I, upon the insolent crackfarts, the impudent numps, the tawdry morts!" These are just some of the shocking expletives that our next reader the actress and author Fidelis Morgan uses - regularly by all accounts. An expert in the wild, weird and wacky world of the 60s - the 1760s, that is! - Miss Morgan is a fantastic and mesmerising reader and performer. In her scarlet velvet jacket and pearls, she gave us an extract from her "Countess Ashby de la Zouche" period crime novels involving the purchase of a dildo, and an insight into attitudes to homosexuality and sex two hundred and fifty years ago - and not content with all that she dragged some willing victims out of the audience for a Restoration-era lesson in acting expressions as well...

"I have three passions: larger-than-life people, structure and smut. It was therefore inevitable that I would write whodunits set in Restoration London. Everything is waiting there for me: actresses, stalkers, prostitutes, street hoodlums, footpads, extortionists, rapists and, inevitably, murderers. A quick glimpse through the 1690s Accounts of the London Sessions or the Newgate Calendar is not unlike spending a Sunday with the red tops. Human desires and foibles roll on without ever really changing. I have found neighbours squabbling about noise or smells from next door, wife-beaters, husband-beaters, drunks, peers who think themselves above the law, fraudsters, child molesters, child thieves and children who murdered.

Marvellous stuff! Download an extract of her Unnatural Fire [pdf].



It is very difficult to follow an act like that, but Miss Rosie Wilby certainly leapt to the stage with aplomb! From her roots as a singer with a band back in the 90s, Miss W has developed her career into journalism and latterly stand-up comedy. Recently she has combined all three into a new show based upon her Pop Diaries from the dearly-departed Melody Maker. Here are a couple of samples of the lady's superb talents...

Rosie Wilby stand-up showreel

Rosie Wilby live

Rounding off the evening, his clothes having unsurprisingly fallen off by this stage, Mr B introduced Polari First Book Prize winner Mr James Maker, who treated us to some of his often hilarious reminisces from his memoir Autofellatio. On this occasion he entertained us with the often bizarre experience of filming Middleton's Changeling alongside an array of eccentric characters including Billy Connolly, Ian Dury, John Cooper-Clarke and Viv Stanishall (who appeared in the kitchen in the middle of the night to announce to the startled young Mr Maker "The Cumberland sausages are mine!" before disappearing again). Read in James' typically droll "throwaway" style, the experience seemed all the more amazing...



And so it was unfortunate that another great evening's entertainment had to close - just sufficient time for me to get a photograph taken with two of my favourite entertainers, Miss Adele Anderson (who we saw only recently on stage with her group Fascinating Aida) and Miss Eve Ferret (whose one-woman show we saw in June last year), who I had been raving about meeting all evening!



Utterly charming and delightful company they were, too.

J'adore Polari! Our next is on 6th February, and Tiffany Murray and Faarea Masud are already announced - but I have no doubt there will be much much more.

Polari is at the Southbank Centre

Apathy or resistance?

One most telling thing about society these days is the "five-second memory" that is encouraged by TV, music videos, video games, and yes, dear readers, social network sites. This "Twitter generation" is actively engaged in snippets of nothingness, and reality matters less and less to some people. In the words of the late, great Dame Joan Sutherland "Them's my sentiments, anyhow..."

And so it seemed to us last night, as the combination of cold damp weather and "more important" stuff such as X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing, or indeed sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll, appeared to have reduced the number of people who bothered to come out for the "Say No To Hate Crime" rally and vigil. Ian Baynham's murder in Trafalgar Square was, I suppose, still in the news this time last year when 10,000 people turned up.

This year, the gay press is more interested in Joe McElderry [no disrespect meant to the young man by the way, just he really isn't that important!] and numbers were reduced to around 2,000 at the most - a fairly small gathering given the magnitude of the problem.

From politicians to pioneers, from Amy Lamé to Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart (founder of the Milk Foundation), we had speakers from all backgrounds and interest groups - Ian Baynham's sister Diana, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Paul Burston, Lynne Featherstone MP (Minister for Equalities), Peter Tatchell, gay Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes, Sue Sanders (Schools Out) and many others gave heartfelt speeches.

A gay brass band tootled from the back of the crowd, (almost inaudible to anyone near the speakers' stage incidentally), and an assembled gay chorus sang some songs of hope and sadness. We all had glow-sticks, some people lit candles. Yet despite messages of support from David Cameron and Ed Milliband, there were no front-benchers or leaders of political parties.



It is sad to say that this felt like a message of hope speaking out to only an interested few. The facts are terrifying. Hate crime is evidently on the increase:

• 1,192 homophobic offences were reported in London in the year to September, up from 1,008 the previous year, a rise of 18.3%
• 1 in 5 gay and lesbian people have experienced a homophobic hate crime or incident in the last three years
• 3 in 4 did not report them to the police. Only 6% reported them to third parties
• 7 in 10 did not report hate crime and incidents to anyone.

A list of hundreds of names of people who have been murdered because of hatred against their "difference" was read out after the silence at 8pm.

One speaker told possibly the most emotional story of all. Artist Paul Harfleet decided to instigate the "Pansy Project" in 2005, to plant a pansy at the site of each reported site of such a hate crime. Since his project began he has planted 10,000.

That is five times the number of people who bothered to turn up last night; despised, beaten or even murdered because they were gay.

I sometimes feel ashamed of what passes for the gay "scene". I am really proud of everyone involved in organising this important event, and everyone who showed up.

"Six inch heels, seven inch wig, slinky gown and loads of attitude"

We had been looking forward to last night's The House of Homosexual Culture's landmark event Stonewall - 40 for a while. Both Madame Acarti and I have long histories in the gay rights movement, mine through several years of lobbying, petition-raising and Pride-attending (previously blogged - and badged again on the night - so I probably don't need to elucidate for the sake of repetition).



Tony (the erstwhile Madame A) has an even longer history than my own of involvement in campaigning - in deepest darkest Plymouth, he was a very early 1970s member of their own branch of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality - and he proudly wore the T-shirt to prove it. A particularly rewarding moment was when he had his pic taken alongside his (and our) hero Peter Tatchell, who remains an inspiration to us all (small town or big city queens alike) for his ceaseless efforts on behalf of our rights and our liberation.



Our host Rupert Smith opened the proceedings with a potted outline of the context against which the night was set - the 40th anniversary of a major landmark in gay history, when a hitherto insignificant New York gay bar and its punters stood up to their continued harassment by the police, and fought back. The Stonewall Riots began.

Professor Jeffrey Weeks (London South Bank University) began the evening with a very incisive exploration of whether the Stonewall "riots" were actually the foundation of everything we think of as "gay liberation". His argument, notwithstanding his own background in activism, was that yes, the events of June 1969 in America did indeed breed a new form of radical direct action amongst gay people - not least the formation of the Gay Liberation Front here in the UK, and the various attempts to make Gay Pride events happen, from the early 70s to today's glittery parade, at a time of year that commemorates Stonewall.

But he also exposed the various well-documented divisions that occurred almost as soon as movements such as the GLF arrived. Women, political lobbyists such as the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (as opposed to direct action aficionados), bisexuals and the Trans community soon went their own separate but distinct ways - and the rest, as they say is history.

Lindsay River (Director of user-led older LGBT organisation, Age of Diversity) followed, with her personal perspective on one of those dichotomies - the role of gay women in the rights movement. Her early loyalties torn between the budding GLF (which ironically she joined in the early 70s just as the radical lesbians all quit en masse) and her radical leftie feminism, she gave us a fascinating insight into her own evolution from those early days into the frequent attempts to get lesbianism recognised within the wider Women's Movement, and to get women's rights integrated within the gay rights movement.

Roz Kaveney - whose excellent and quotable mantra is "I was reared Catholic but got over it, was born male but got over it, stopped sleeping with boys about the time I stopped being one and am much happier than I was when I was younger" - led our understanding of Stonewall (and its repercussions) down a separate path.

Obviously trannies, TVs and drag queens have subsequently been recognised for the vital and central part they played in repelling the cops on that particular night (read my blog for a potted history), but, stung by the memory of how certain elements of this so-called "unified" gay rights movement tried to play down the significance of their presence, she read a poem she recently composed on the subject and dramatically placed the spotlight back onto those "Stonewall Girls" who were actually on the forefront of the action.

Part one of our evening concluded in an even more fittingly dramatic style as Rikki Beadle Blair, actor and creator of Stonewall the Movie (and play, which we went to see at The Pleasance Theatre before it went to Edinburgh in 2007), took the stage. In an excellent and captivating extract from his "one (wo)man show" he captured loudly, proudly, dramatically and brilliantly the (semi-biographical) feelings of a naive gay black man who relives the pride of the drag queens ("six inch heels, seven inch wig, slinky gown and loads of attitude") who led the riot, then recreates him/herself with all the pride, drama and chutzpah that they inspired in him. Superb!


Paul Burston, Michael Twaits, Jeffrey Weeks, Peter Tatchell, Ruth Hunt, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Roz Kaveney

Opening part two, Ruth Hunt (Head of Policy and Research at Stonewall), a "young dyke in a suit", as she described herself - took us through a little of what the current day lobbyists - named, twenty years after the event, in honour of the riots - stood for, and what they had achieved (quietly, maybe, without direct action, maybe) on behalf of gay people in the political arena.

She freely admitted that there were indeed critics of their, and her, modus operandi, but that she was more than well aware that in some future political climate there may once more be a need for a more radical type of protest - and that she would be ready and more than willing for the challenge should that day ever arrive.

Our star speaker was of course the tireless, splendid and iconic campaigner Peter Tatchell. His speech - welcomed with whoops of acclaim from our audience - tore into some of the shameful facts that remain about what gay people have actually achieved over the past forty years, and what in effect "second best" citizens we remain, from the perspective of equal - or even distinct - rights. Peter's utopian vision may sometimes appear to drift towards ultra-leftie "commune"-based idealism, but at the heart of the matter are some absolutely brilliant insights.

"Civil partnership" is indeed a compromise. We are supposed to accept the fact that we will never be able to marry if we want to or not, there is no option for becoming "next of kin" or gaining any of the other "advantages" that come with "civil partnership" without succumbing to a prescribed social "norm" of a ceremony, and no-one - whether gay or straight - who wants to opt out of a religious or civil ceremony has any partnership rights at all.

The "age of consent" may well have been equalised at 16 for gays as well as heterosexuals, but under this government's tenure the specific criminalisation of anyone who dares to be sexually active under that age is now written into the statute books, with a maximum prison sentence of six months (unprecedented under any previous government).

Shocking, angry stuff - yet so many gay people are completely unaware of the facts!

Peter's rapturous ovation almost brought the house down. However, we had one final treat in store, as the lovely Michael Twaits took the stage. "Post drag; Post Gender; Post giving a shit!". We had seen and enjoyed his thunderous, poetic patter-song/poem about the experiences of the queens on the night of the Stonewall riots (set the the backing track of Amy Winehouse's Back in Black) before, but tonight, after a breathtaking evening, it just seemed to be the most fitting way to round off the final event of the London Literature Festival...

Michael Twaits - Stonewall

Stonewall: 40