THEGAYUK

Author: Tim Baros

  • THEATRE REVIEW | GH Boy – Charing Cross Theatre – The Gay Party scene – Warts and all

    THEATRE REVIEW | GH Boy – Charing Cross Theatre – The Gay Party scene – Warts and all

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Robert seems to have it all but in reality, he doesn’t. His fate is revealed in the new hard-hitting play GH Boy.

    Now playing at the Charing Cross Theatre until December 20th Robert (Jimmy Essex) has the perfect boyfriend in Sergio (Marc Bosch). Sergio is young, cute, fun and just adores Robert – who in Sergio’s eyes can’t do no wrong. Robert also has an understanding mom (now played by Nicola Sloane after Buffy Davis injured herself), a very good friend in Jasminder (Anryana Ramkhalawon) and an understanding therapist (Devesh Kishore). But Robert hides a secret – he’s way over his head in East London’s party scene (party = drugs).

    Meanwhile, there are whispers of a gay serial killer who entices gay men with promises of drugs, drugs, and more drugs. Robert desperately wants to leave the scene behind him and to enjoy his engagement with the adorable Sergio – but Robert can’t seem to escape the clutch on drugs – and this might just lead to a rendevous with the serial killer who seems about to snare Robert into his dangerous web.

    GH Boy tackles the misconceptions around gay culture and promiscuity and questions why gay men like Robert are drawn to this scene to the point of self-destruction in this show by debut playwright Paul Harvard.

    Originally supposed to run at The Vaults earlier this year but cancelled due to COVID 19 – catch it now while you can before possible tier 3 restrictions come into effect.

    Find out more https://ghboy.co.uk and book tickets here

  • London’s Queer cabaret collectives take over Pleasance Islington this festive season

    London’s Queer cabaret collectives take over Pleasance Islington this festive season

    ‘Tis the season to be Queer. The crème de la crème of London’s Queer cabaret groups are taking over the Pleasance this December for a festive celebration of London’s renowned drag, cabaret, and performance scene. This year the venue welcomes a diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community, with drag kings, queens and gender non-conforming artists all taking to the stage.

    Following on from two acclaimed residencies at the Pleasance with Sink The Pink, Ginger Johnson is back for an evening of camp laughs, filthy looks, and all the usual shiny shit you’ve come to expect from Pleasance’s own Christmas tree angel. All-female and non-binary theatre and cabaret company Pecs Drag Kings visit Pleasance for the first time with Pecs: Christmas Queer before the one and only Cocoa Butter Club promise to decolonise and remoisturise in a brand-new Christmas revue, Gifted. Acclaimed pan-Asian collective The Bitten Peach will bring the festivities to a close and enchant audiences with their Bedtime Stories

    Embracing the new normal, the venue has transformed its main house into London’s most exciting, socially distanced comedy, theatre and cabaret space. The new three-tier auditorium will welcome 100 people a night when it reopens in November, bringing the spirit of the Fringe back to London.

    The venue will follow up-to-date safety regulations with e-ticketing, enhanced cleaning and table service using the app Butlr to provide drinks as well as new pizzas from neighbours The Depot. The auditorium will open one hour before each performance to give audiences time to settle in and enjoy some pre-show drinks ensuring you can spend your whole evening at the venue in style. A trip to the Pleasance promises to be a fun and safe night out.

    Anthony Alderson, Director of Pleasance Theatre Trust, comments, I’m thrilled that we are re-opening the London space and managing to bring theatre back to London audiences. We have put strict hygiene and cleanliness protocols in place and are making sure that your visit to the Pleasance is as safe as possible. The artists we work with are at the heart of what we do and this re-opening season is all about bringing back that undefinable Fringe spirit that embodies all of us.

    London’s Queer cabaret collectives take over Pleasance Islington this festive season

    Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, London N7 9EF Wednesday 11th November – Tuesday 22nd December 2020

    The programme is as follows:

    Ginger Johnson presents

    Ginger Johnson’s Christmas Egg

    8th – 9th December 2020

    Join Newcastle’s sweetheart and some of her most ridiculous cabaret pals for an evening of camp laughs, filthy looks, and all the usual shiny shit you’ve come to expect from Pleasance’s own Christmas tree angel, Ginger Johnson.

    From the same tiny mind that brought you How to Catch a Krampus and Escape from Planet Trash, Miss Rona may have put pay to her usual festive offering but that won’t stop Ginger from squeezing her lockdown paunch into 4 pairs of dance tights and making an idiot of herself in the name of entertainment. Expect songs, sequins and special guests.

    Pecs Drag Kings present

    Pecs: Queer Christmas

    10th – 12th December 2020

    The Kings of Pecs have been queerantined up in our castle but now it’s time to Pec the halls because we’re back in town and we want to spread the Christmas Queer.

    Join us in our cosy cabaret grotto while we bring you some of our greatest festive hits, queermas tales and sexy socially distanced dances.

    Put some Christmas Queer in your stocking filler!

    The Cocoa Butter Club presents

    Gifted

    15th – 17th December 2020 Ooo-wee, what did you wish for?

    The Cocoa Butter Club presents Gifted – an exquisite cabaret evening of excellence; delivering dreams, desires and demands to the most deserving – that’s you!

    Wrapped in your favourite RnB, Neo Soul and Old Skool jams, expect a homecoming feeling, as our family reunites to ‘decolonise and re-moisturise’! Issa generous serving of multi-skilled and highly melanated talent, boasting burlesque, drag, music, spoken word, circus arts and more!

    Bitten Peach presents

    Bedtime Stories

    21st – 22nd December 2020

    2020 might be a total nightmare, but this December you’ll be having some sweet dreams as you dive into The Bitten Peach Bedtime Stories!

    London’s Premiere Pan-Asian Cabaret Collective comes together to present a special winter season showcase, featuring some of your favourite fairytales with a queer twist and the Bitten Peach’s signature Asian flavours.

    Pleasance, Carpenters Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF

    The nearest underground station is Caledonian Road (Piccadilly Line). The nearest train stations are Kings Cross/St Pancras and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury Richmond.

    Tickets from £15. Buy tickets from www.pleasance.co.uk or call 0207 609 1800.

    @ThePleasance, #ThePleasance

    www.facebook.com/ThePleasance

  • FILM REVIEW | Patrick – Clothes not needed

    FILM REVIEW | Patrick – Clothes not needed

    Rating: 3 out of 5.

    Patrick has lost his hammer, and he’s also lost his clothes!

    You see Patrick (Kevin Jannsens), in the new film simply called ‘Patrick,’ works at a nudist camp deep in the woods in a remote area in Belgium. It’s a nudist camp his father owns, and where, along with his mother, all share a home in the camp. His mother is blind and his father is getting a bit too old to run the camp. Then one day Patrick notices that one of his hammers is gone, so he spends the entire film in search of his hammer (yes, literally a hammer). Patrick goes from tent to tent in the hopes of finding his hammer – he so obsessed about it that when his father suddenly dies, Patrick still has only one thing on his mind  – yes you guessed it –  to find his hammer.

    The nudist camp is full of characters, all naked all the time. After a bit, the nudity becomes a bit unnoticeable and the storyline gets quirkier and quirkier, including when a famous American musician takes up a spot in the camp who perhaps knows a thing to two about the hammer. Also about to be revealed is a secret his father had, and his mother’s knowledge about the secret. But Patrick is oblivious to the whole thing – he just wants his hammer back. From Peaky Blinders director Tim Mielants, Patrick is quirky, a bit funny, and definitely different.   

    https://anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk/pages/patrick

  • FILM REVIEW | County Lines – Drug dealing is hard work

    FILM REVIEW | County Lines – Drug dealing is hard work

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Henry Blake, in his debut as director and writer, gives us an intimate and moving portrait of a young man groomed into the drug trade.

    In County Lines, we meet Tyler (Conrad Khan), who lives at home with his single mother Toni (a very good Ashley Madekwe) and his little sister Briony (Shauna Sim). Tyler is a disaffected youth in east London, and at 14 is the man of the house. His mother has a hard time making ends meet, and also has a hard time getting Tyler to open up. Tyler is just going through the motions at school, couldn’t care either way about it, nor about the men his mom brings home. But one day he meets the good-looking and sharp-dressed Simon (Harris Dickinson).

    Simon offers Tyler the opportunity to make money, money much needed in his cash strapped home to pay the bills. Soon enough, Tyler gets sucked into the world of drug-running – delivering drugs and collecting money – but it all comes at a risk, not just from the authorities but from other dealers in the business as well. But Tyler gets in way too deep, but will the new trainers and extra money be worth the risk?

    Khan is just about perfect as the young man who wants to do right by his family and takes an opportunity he sees as too good to be true. Khan, a veteran of many films, including The Huntsman and The Passenger, has an amazingly expressive face. Madekwe also just about perfect as his struggling mom, while Dickinson (Beach Rats) is good as always. Director Blake pulls us into Tyler’s bleak world from the start – it’s an amazing debut from Blake – who originally created this film as a short – nominated for the Best British Short Film Award at the London Short Film Festival last year. 

    County Lines is released in cinemas and digitally on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema on 4 December

  • FILM REVIEW | Ghosts of the Republique – Gay French couple desperately want a child

    Rating: 5 out of 5.

    A newly married French gay couple journey to America to find a surrogate in the moving documentary ‘Ghosts of the Republique.’

    It was love at first sight for Aurelien and Nicolas when they meet at a gay club in Paris. They wind up getting married and such begins the film and their journey. It’s 2014 and estate agent Nicolas and flight attendant Aurelien make a perfect couple, while both their parents have accepted the fact that their gay sons would never be parents. Even Nicolas’s mother is happy to now have two sons but upset that she’ll never be happy as she’ll never have a grandchild.

    However, Aurelien and Nicolas do want to have a child, but they face serious obstacles – the most difficult one being that the French government does not allow surrogacy. It’s a government that passed same-sex marriage in 2013 but is not quite progressive enough. Aurelien and Nicolas are so determined to be parents that they fly to Las Vegas to start a family of their own through international surrogacy. They search high and low for an egg donor and also a surrogate to carry the egg to produce a child. They interview several local women, make decisions, and proceed with the process.

    It’s a process that’s complex, full of loopholes and uncertainty, and where every step has to go perfect and according to plan. Getting their non-French born baby back into France and establishing French citizenship is another hurdle to tackle. We go through the highs and the lows with Aurelien and Nicolas in the documentary – it’s an emotional ride made bearable by the charming couple who desperately want a baby, and we see them travel back and forth from France to the US several times to check in their baby mama.

    Ghosts of the Republique, directed by American Jonathon Narducci, provides us with much joy and drama in this sweet and touching story of Aurelien and Nicolas. 

    Ghosts of the Republique is now available on Amazon Prime, iTunes and other platforms.

  • FILM REVIEW | Bare – For fans of male nudity – and dance

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    In the new documentary film Bare, these men are whittled down to eleven who rehearse and perform the premiere of Belgian choreographer Thierry Smit’s new dance piece ‘Anima Ardens.’ Director Aleksandr M. Vinogradov’s captures the auditions, and rehearsals, in this documentary that is both revealing, sexy and fun. Filmed in Brussels, the men, all presumably professional dancers, jump at the chance of working with Smits, a well-known choreographer who set up his own company in 1990, and who has created over 30 dance performances. His dance pieces are contemporary, with fusions of pop, queer and often provocative aesthetics included.

    The eleven men have no problem getting naked. One, during the early stages of the audition, raises the question as to why the camera is in the room. The explanation is that a documentary will be made about this process answers the question, and the show goes on. However we really don’t get to know any of the dancers individually, and Smits, front and centre, also remains an enigma. But combining Smits with the dancers in their daily struggle to get the dance moves correct, with Smits not quite knowing exactly what he is looking for, brings mystery and drama into play.

    All the dancers are very sexy, of course especially when naked, but after a bit, the nudity becomes almost invisible (but not quite) and it’s the performance piece they are rehearsing that takes centre stage because it’s unconventional. All the dancers appear to be very comfortable with each other, and near the end, they are all very playful in the showers as they clean up after a day of rehearsal. And Bare cleverly ends as the first performance of ‘Anima Ardens’ begins. Lucky for us, just a quick Google search will lead you to see the actual dance piece in its entirety. 

    Bare is indeed bare; it’s sexy, raw and in your face.

    Bare held its world premiere at Hot Docs and has also been featured at Cinema Diverse, Doc NYC and DocEdge.

    Look for it hopefully at UK film festivals in 2021.

  • FILM REVIEW | Dating Amber – Growing up gay is not easy

    FILM REVIEW | Dating Amber – Growing up gay is not easy

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Fionn O’Shea and Lola Petticrew are just about perfect as a young couple who pretend to fall in love in1995 Ireland in the new film Dating Amber.

    But they are not an actual couple. You see Eddie (O’Shea) is Gay (though he won’t admit it), and Amber (Petticrew) is a Lesbian, and both are on the cusp of finishing their last year of high school. Amber, who lives with her widowed mother in a trailer park, has dreams of moving to London after she graduates. Eddie, meanwhile, plans to go into the military to follow in his father’s footsteps. But to survive their final year at school, and to ward off name-calling and bullying from their fellow students, they decide to pretend to be a couple (this is after a failed attempt on Eddie’s part to woo a blond girl, though he fails to grab her boob during a groping session).

    Eddie and Amber go through their charade and actually make a perfect couple; Eddie is shy, very cute and adorable, while Amber is aggressive, knows what she wants, and has all the best lines. However, after a night out to a gay bar in Dublin where Amber meets someone, and Eddie still not quite ready to accept that he’s gay, the pressure is on for him to take charge of his life, to appease his father (Barry Ward) and very understanding and knowing mother (Sharon Horgan), alongside his know-it-all younger brother (Evan O’Connor). 

    This coming-of-age comedy is a poignant, honest and funny look at the highs and lows of teenage life while growing up in a conservative environment where young people who are different don’t seem to fit in. Both leads are just absolutely perfect, the feel of mid-90s Ireland comes through the screen, and the funny script makes Dating Amber the one of best romantic comedy and growing up films of the year.

    Now available on Demand and Digital

  • FILM REVIEW | Proxima – Will melt your heart

    FILM REVIEW | Proxima – Will melt your heart

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Eva Green is superb as a divorced single mother who is an astronaut chosen to go into space in the excellent Proxima.

    Sarah (Green) is a French astronaut training at the European Space Agency in Cologne and lives alone with her seven-year-old daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant), and still friendly with her ex-husband Thomas (Lars Eidinger).  

    Being the only woman in the space program, Sarah is chosen to be part of the crew for a year-long space mission called ‘Proxima.’ While she is honoured and privileged to be chosen, she must weigh the fact that this will take her away from her delicate daughter for a year, and this also means putting Sarah in the middle of a male-only mission where there is very little sympathy for her being a woman and a mother. She has to put up with misogynistic banter, and fellow crew members who need to more time to get used to going up into space with a woman. Even the captain Mike (a very good Matt Dillon) doesn’t immediately take a liking to her. But Sarah slowly earns the respect of the crew and slowly prepares Stella for her departure. But second thoughts enter Sarah’s head, and right up to the last minute she has her doubts.

    Proxima premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and proceeded to run the festival circuit where it won the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian Film Festival. Vertical Entertainment has released the film on digital and VOD platforms. Green (last seen in Dumbo) is absolutely fantastic and her performance puts her in awards contentions.

    Dillon, who last made screen waves, and controversy, in the 2018 film The House That Jack Built, shines as the team leader, and he’s good-looking as ever. Proxima is a film that will bring tears to your eyes and will melt your heart.

    Order PROXIMA from Amazon out on DVD/BluRay and Digital 23rd November

  • FILM REVIEW | Oliver Sacks: His Own Life – A life well-lived

    FILM REVIEW | Oliver Sacks: His Own Life – A life well-lived

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    The late Oliver Sacks was a very fascinating man. Learn more about him in the upcoming documentary Oliver Sacks: His Own Life.

    Sacks was not just a scientist and neurologist, he also wrote dozens and dozens of books including best sellers, was a master in his field, greatly respected, became a celebrity later in life, and he was also gay. 

    Sacks grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Cricklewood, London. Both his parents were doctors – so it was almost a natural that he’d be a doctor. But it wasn’t until his older brother Michael was diagnosed schizophrenic, an illness that affected the whole family but Oliver more so, that Sacks future was sealed. Going to medical school in Oxford, then to America where he took up residency in San Francisco is when his true self came out – a man with a motorbike dressed in head to toe leather. But while he was taking care of patients with severe neurological issues (stunning footage shows him with patients with neurological diseases and oddities) – Sacks never really found love or romance. His mother vehemently objected to his homosexuality but she also turned into a champion of his while he spent a summer writing a book at his childhood home. But her death affected him greatly, and after he turned 40 he remained celibate for the next 35 years. 

    Quite a bit of footage of Sacks is of him in his West Village apartment surrounded by staff, friends, etc. His personality comes through in these moments like a bright red sunset – with his charming laugh, unique British accent and sparkle in his eye that will win you over. He won Bill Hayes over – at age 75 Sacks and Hayes (20 years younger) remained together until Sacks death in 2015 at the age of 83. It’s a happy relationship to the end of an amazing life led by a man who changed medical science and at the same time opened our eyes to it. Director Ric Burns really captures the life and times of Sacks, especially of his final years of being with Hayes.

    Now playing on https://filmforum.org/virtual-cinema/ and https://kinomarquee.com

  • FILM REVIEW | Dedalus – startling and memorable

    FILM REVIEW | Dedalus – startling and memorable

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Dedalus is a fictional triptych portraying community, love, and loss.

    It’s a film that deals with homosexuality and age, with three very different storylines. And while one of them is a bit confusing, it’s a very good piece of work by a first-time director.

    A goodlooking young man (newcomer Alexander Horner, a natural) is a bit lost in life, always struggling to make ends meet, going from couch to couch. But he knows what he likes – he enjoys the ‘company’ of older men. He also needs food and shelter during a cold winter in New York City. He is also sexually attracted to older men. And even though a young woman takes him in, nothing satiates his quest for love then older gay client. He meets a succession of them, most of them wealthy, and lonely. They all, of course, take a fancy to him. But he falls for an anxious lawyer (Thomas Jay Ryan) and can foresee a relationship with him, but the lawyer has other things in mind. This second of the three stories in this film is the most hard-hitting and unforgettable.

    Directed by Jonah Greenstein, an independent filmmaker, the other two stories deal with a fathers mortality which compels him to leave his home in Los Angeles and move in with his daughter, and the other story takes place in rural Iowa, a grocery cashier watches helplessly as classmates conceal their act of sexual violence against his teenaged step-sister. 

    All gorgeously directed by Jonah Greenstein, an independent filmmaker. He’s worked with some big names (Rami Malek, Michelle Wiiliams, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras), but it’s this debut, which laces loneliness. beauty and mystery, to create a film that is both startling and memorable.

    Now on on Streaming Platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, OVID.tv & Kanopy

  • Here are the LGBT+ Films at this year’s Raindance Film Festival

    Here are the LGBT+ Films at this year’s Raindance Film Festival

    The 28th Raindance Film Festival, which starts on Oct. 29th and runs through Nov. 7th, will bring the best of independent films and immersive experiences online and in London. The festival program is packed with features, shorts, immersive content, talks, panels and Q&As, which also comprise the following LGBT+ films: 

    A Dim Valley (dir: Brandon Colvin, USA). International Premiere. In this hallucinogenic fairytale, a biologist and his two pot-smoking assistants working deep in the Appalachian woods encounter a trio of mystical backpackers.

    Born to Be (dir: Tania Cypriano, USA). UK Premiere. An intimate look at how the work of Dr Jess Ting at New York’s groundbreaking Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery impacts the lives of his patients, as well as his own life.

    Drag Kids (dir: Megan Wennberg, Canada) UK Premiere. Touching documentary chronicling four drag performers under the age of 12. Having faced enormous scrutiny over their brief drag careers, the young stars prepare for the biggest performance of their lives at Montreal Pride.

    Madame (dir: Stéphane Riethauser, Switzerland). UK premiere. Using private archive footage, this family saga challenges the taboos of gender and sexuality as a flamboyant 90-year old and her gay grandson explore the development and transmission of gender identity in a patriarchal environment. 

    The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo (dir: Javier Polo Gandia, Spain). With contributors including John Walters and Eduardo Casanova, this eccentric documentary follows a man obsessed with flamingos on his quest to unravel the real story behind this pink socio-cultural phenomenon. This film is nominated for Raindance’s “Best Cinematography” Award.

    Under My Skin (dir: David O’Donnell, Australia/USA). Liv Hewson and Alex Russell star as a free-spirited artist and a straight-laced lawyer respectively, whose love is tested by questions of gender. Liv Hewson is nominated for Raindance’s “Best Performance” Award for their role in this film.

    In addition to these films from the feature programme, within the Raindance Immersive VR strand is the following VR documentary:

    Another Dream (creator: Tamara Shogoalu/Ado Ato Pictures).A hybrid animated documentary and VR game which brings the gripping, true love story of an Egyptian lesbian couple to life. Faced with a post-revolution backlash against the LGBT+ community, they escape Cairo to seek asylum and find acceptance in the Netherlands.

    Raindance Film Festival runs 28 October – 7 November, and Raindance Immersive runs 28 October – 15 November.

    For tickets and more information, please go to:
    https://cinema.raindance.org