Under the original cumbersome name of the South London Gay Liberation Front Theatre Group, mercifully shortened to the Brixton Faeries, activists from the gay community wrote, produced and took part in about four or five plays, street theatre and a number of sketches and 'cabarets' from 1974 to the early 1980s. We drew our inspiration from many different sources.
Pantomime allowed us the latitude for slap-stick and knock about clowning around. Street theatre was more direct in getting our politics across to the audience in a succinct and clear way. Radical drag and elements of more traditional camp drag acts gave us the ability to branch out into fantasy land and indulge in ironic and challenging views of ‘straight’ life. The creativity of individuals who were engaged in ‘performance art‘ was given additional expression through the opportunity to build their acts into the plays. The modem dance movements we had learned to perform at a gay centre class were also incorporated along with the inventive originality of individuals whose radical drag creations were part of their self-expression. We believed that theatre was as good a weapon as any in the fight against the forces working to keep gay people down and out.
Brixton Faeries' theatre work was informed by the different styles, attitudes, politics and sheer boldness of the groups already mentioned together with our own aptitude for invention. With a concern more for understanding the nature of anti-gay forces at work in society and the challenges and lessons to be drawn from the experiences of gay people, incorporating some of our own, we unashamedly projected onto the screen of community theatre an active disavowal of the narrowing, destructive confines of anti-gay prejudice and bigotry. Dissent through adopting strident political views and agit prop took precedence over considerations of ‘artistic merit‘ though the plays developed over time increasing levels of sophistication in terms of character and plot.
The productions were performed at several locations mostly London based. Apart from the South London Gay Community Centre this included Effra Parade Primary School Brixton, the Waterloo Action Centre, Saint Jude's Church Hall on Railton Road, Oval House Community Theatre, the Hemingford Arms in Islington, the Theatre Space Covent Garden, the Southbank Polytechnic, Elephant & Castle (now a university), the Campaign for Homosexual Equality annual conference in Southampton, the Communist Party's Red Festival (1977) and Fulham Town Hall. We also performed street theatre and participated in a local community festival with our gay dragon (Chinese New Year style).
I propose to look at two of our earliest plays in detail to give a clear view of the politics we propagated through the first bursts of enthusiasm driving our dramatic and comedic endeavours. The rest will be outlined briefly with additional comments. It's unclear when all of the plays, sketches and mini cabarets were performed which means I haven't been able to follow a strict chronology of production dates.
click on the images bellow to be taken to a page about one of the plays explored in depth, or scroll down further to see brief outlines of other productions
Gay Sweatshop
Gay Sweatshop had already demonstrated the capacity to challenge obstacles to self-esteem and self-identity with the Play ‘Mr. X‘. Based on the Gay Liberation counter-psychiatry pamphlet ‘With Downcast Gays‘ the guilt, shame and the low expectations of gay people were all radically challenged for a more positive image of self-esteem and pride. Liberal views on homosexuality which worked towards the tolerance and integration of gay people were also attacked. The price of being allowed to occupy a space on the fringes of society meant the ending of a distinctively gay identity and Gay Sweatshop answered this with a full-blooded gay liberation rejection of tolerance and integration in favour of autonomy, identity and liberation. Among others they also produced the major plays 'Poppies' and 'Dear Love of Comrades' exploring the relationship between men (ostensibly enemies) in the trenches during the first world war and the life of the gay Utopian socialist Edward Carpenter.
Bette Bourne and Bloolips
Bette Bourne and Bloolips inspired by the visiting New York based group Hot Peaches, in very different circumstances and with an entirely novel and brilliantly entertaining approach used camp, gender bending and visually stunning costumes and make-up to throw down the gauntlet in answer to rigidly defined attributes of masculinity and femininity. Both groups developed an original style that would leave audiences exhilarated and laughing inside at the sheer skill and audacity of the performances as they pointedly reinterpreted the world about them through burlesque and playful caricatures.
Hot Peaches
Hot Peaches from New York were a strong influence on both Bloolips and Brixton Faeries theatre especially their production of The Divas of Sheridan Square
Bradford Gay Liberation Theatre Workshop
Bradford Gay Liberation Theatre Workshop (General Will production) in their performances of ‘All Het Up‘ and ‘Present Your Briefs’ set an entirely different directions in gay theatre. The drama of being lesbian and gay in a working class household and the harassment and persecution of gay people by the law was deftly and wittily presented in a more social realist vein but with, like the other groups mentioned, some memorable songs. The group staged 'Present Your Briefs' at Hammersmith Town Hall (1975) as a benefit for the South London Gay Community Centre which was in danger of closing down after Lambeth Council's refusal of a grant to cover basic running costs.
Hormone Imbalance
Hormone Imbalance, a radical lesbian theatre group, with a name that clearly challenged nonsensical theories by psycho sexual experts about the origins of lesbianism, pushed the boundaries of lesbian drama beyond simply just coming out and building self-esteem. In their own words:"A desire to create a style of lesbian theatre that was more edgy and provocative than the predominantly earnest ‘come out’ style of lesbian feminist theatre that was – of necessity – being created in the mid 1970s. It was, in effect, an alternative to the alternative.....
Hormone Imbalance is not another chapter from the Kinsey Report, a Freudian description of the ‘female complaint’ nor … the definitive guide on lesbian erotica. What we are is an exciting theatrical venture within a surrealist form designed to make visible our invisibility, turn water into wine, make whole the sick and bring the dead to life, or words to that effect.
In producing 'Ophelia' the group created a lesbian version of one of Shakespeare's greatest characters from 'Hamlet'. Instead of marrying the Prince of Denmark she runs away with her girlfriend.
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Prince Charming (Ian Townson) failing to raise Sleeping Beauty from her slumbers with offers of a paltry pension and a free ticket to a hair-do salon
Stephen Gee on the piano
Girl Guides holding up signs saying: Increase Pensions Now
Colm Clifford frightening the audience with a big stick
L-R: Lee Boswell, Stephen Gee
Christmas Cabaret and Pantomime
On a later occasion, having participated as a gay dragon in a local street festival, we staged a cabaret and pantomime for Pensioners and girl guides at St. Jude’s Hall, Railton Road. We knew someone in the local community and he invited us to put on a Christmas show. The performances were a mix of songs with piano and guitar accompaniments and a ‘John the Baptist’ scene we borrowed from Bloolip’s camp radical drag take on Oscar Wilde’s play Salome. But the main part of the show consisted of Brixton Faeries reinterpretation of the pantomime Sleeping Beauty.
After the promise of revealing the real Sleeping Beauty against the image of a pampered and passive princess slumbering away on a chaise longue followed by a dance sequence by Andreas Demetriou the hapless and hopeless Prince Charming enters. He attempts to waken the princess with a kiss but she continues to snore. He stomps up and down in frustration and confusion. The offer of a free ticket to a hair-do salon, a miserly pension and a bus pass are offered but are firmly rejected. Again he stomps about.
The good fairy arrives and sees Sleeping Beauty is in a lamentably dishevelled state. Her solution is to brighten up the Princess’s life with a pair of sparkling earrings, a bright new dress and a substantial pension. Prince charming finally leaves the stage in a disconsolate state.
The pantomime ends with girl guides on stage holding up signs that spell out ‘Increase Pensions Now!’
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L-R: Peter Cross, Colm Clifford, Bill Thornycroft (as Vera Lynn), Stephen Gee, Edwin Henshaw
David Simpson as Namby Pamby
Julian Hows
Julian Hows narrating the story next to Ray Amer
Bill and Ben the Flower pot men with Little Weed in between. Stephen Gee at the piano
Town Hall Shows
The marvellous art work on flyers advertising various Town Hall dances were mostly created by Jim Ennis
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Street Theatre
Brixton gays out and about at local street festivals and camping it up just for the fun of it outside the gay squats on Railton Road.
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L-R: Bill Thornycroft, Ian Townson, Colm Clifford, Philip Osment and Philip Timmins (both Gay Sweatshop)
L-R: Maggie from Streatham? Tulse Hill? and Ian Townson
Philip Timmins a member of the Gay Sweatshop theatre group
Stephen Gee
Stephen Gee
Radio Gay
A joint production from Brixton Faeries theatre and Gay Sweatshop. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was all about. It did however feature a talking clock, goofy policeman, a sailor and Swans, Wrens and Peacocks (SWP)