RADICAL REDISCOVERY II : DRAGGING UP and ACTING OUT – A SYMPOSIUM

Name: RADICAL REDISCOVERY II : DRAGGING UP and ACTING OUT – A SYMPOSIUM
Start: 2025-11-07T10:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-08T17:00:00+00:00
Location: London Performance Studios

7 November @ 10:30 am - 8 November @ 5:00 pm

RADICAL REDISCOVERY II: HOMOSEXUAL ACTS and BEYOND presents

DRAGGING UP AND ACTING OUT: a Symposium

Friday and Saturday 7 and 8 November, 10.30am till 5.30pm
London Performance Studios
Penarth Street
London SE1 1TR

A two day symposium exploring the radical work of lesbian and gay theatre makers in the 1970s – 80s and its resonance for LGBTQ+ artists and the wider culture today.

From the first Gay Sweatshop plays that toured the country to audiences, some of whom had never before seen their experience represented on stage, to radical drag that lampooned narrow definitions of gender and sex roles, campaigning theatre that rejected outdated laws, lesbian high camp, and the first Black lesbian and gay theatre in Britain, the symposium will challenge narrow perspectives of LGBTQ+ theatre as a recent phenomenon. With panels, talks, slideshows, Q&As and a Long Table, alongside new work commissioned by early career artists in response to this earlier history, the Symposium will take a deep dive into this rich and too little-known history, and explore how it can inspire us today.

SCHEDULE

FRI
10.30 – 11 – Arrival, Coffee and Tea
11 – Welcome
11.30-12.30 – Queering the Archive Alice Parsons (Producer, Castles in the Sky) and Kane Stonestreet (LADA) in conversation with Dr Susan Croft (Unfinished Histories)
12.40-1.40 – Black and Asian LGBTQ Theatre Then and Now Martin Patrick (Playwright ‘Where to Now’, Novelist) in conversation with Poulomi Desai (multidisciplinary Artist and Curator) with contribution from Valerie Mason- John (Author, Playwright).

1.40-2.30 – LUNCH

2.30-3.30 – Lesbian Camp Jill Fleming, Debby Klein and Adele Salem (Harp Corps Theatre Company / Parker and Klein) with contributions from Karen Parker and Sarah McNair
4.00-5.00 – Son of a Gun Reunited Members of Sidewalk Theatre reunite to talk about collaboration, working with autobiography and the making of ‘Son of a Gun’ (1976)

6.00pm – Rehearsed Reading of ‘Son of a Gun’ (1976) directed by Melissa Dunne.

SAT
10.30 – 11 – Arrival, Coffee and Tea
11 – 12 – On Railton Road : Brixton Faeries, Radical Collectives and Beyond Jonathan Blake and Julian Hows in conversation with Rebecca Scroggs.
12.10 – 1.10 – Rikki Beadle-Blair (director, writer, actor, producer) in conversation with Alexander Gallimore

1.10- 2.00 – LUNCH

2.00- 3.3o – Presentations from Microgrant Recipient Artists five artists/collectives share their work in response to the LGBTQ sections of the Unfinished Histories Archives – Meeri Aro, Angel Beavington, Zahra Dalilah, Sama Hunt, Calima Lunt + Rosa Gatley
3.45-5.15 – Longtable Where Have We Been And Where Are We Going? The future of LGBTQ work.

Alice Parsons (Castles in the Sky), Kane Stonestreet (LADA) Martin Patrick (Playwright/Novelist) Rikki Beadle-Blair (Actor/Writer/Director/Producer), members of Hard Corps theatre company Adele Salem, Jill Fleming, Debby Klein, and more TBA.

Friday evening (6 pm) will also feature a rehearsed reading of Son of a Gun, directed by Melissa Dunne, originally developed by Sidewalk Theatre company in 1976. Based on Tash Fairbanks’ life as a working-class lesbian, and scripted by John Burrows, according to The Times reviewer that year, it ‘...charts the adventures of a mutinous nine-year-old to her emergence as a liberated lesbian squatter…’, and was acclaimed by audiences and described by the Morning Star as a ‘…a minor epic…a sensitive, portrayal of a working-class girl who fights against being second best…funny, politically exciting, well observed.’