Our fascination with murder shows no sign of waning. Crime fiction, newspaper headlines and ‘true life’ series like Making a Murderer and Serial present tales that are still as grimly compelling to us as the story of Oedipus murdering his father was to the ancient Greeks. ‘Thebes Land’ promises us the story of Martin, a young man who has committed a particularly grisly act of patricide. Not only is documentary maker ‘T’ going to tell us about the story of how he met Martin in order to write this play but he’s also going to present the real Martin on stage. The audience are safe, though. Martin is contained in a 3-metre high wire cage, as per Home Office regulations. Or is he up on the balcony under armed guard? Or is he watching us watching him via video-link?
Daniel Goldman’s cleverly adapted version of this South American piece is a wily beast of a play. It beguiles, tricks and twists until the audience aren’t quite sure what to believe at any point. It starts innocuously enough and promises to be a slightly dry but nonetheless intriguing academic discourse on the nature of theatre-making and storytelling. That’s the first trick of many. It’s a whole lot more than that. What evolves is multifaceted with reflections on multiple issues including the father/son relationship, truth and ego.
It’s a lot more than that too. It’s a grisly crime story, it’s titillating (whilst making you feel perturbed that it’s titillating) and it has a disturbing undertone of sexual tension that crops up between the two men. Hell, it even has a weird little segment where there’s a Whitney Houston number. There’s so much contained here that it leaves you reeling at points and not sure what to think about next.
There is the odd discordant moment where the self-mocking misses the mark but these are few and far between and the two actors are entirely credible. There’s something impish, attractive and likeable about Trevor White’s ‘T’ and Alex Austin gives good vulnerable but terrifying disaffected youth. If you like to be toyed with and want an unconventional night at the theatre then head down to The Arcola and take a cage-side seat. You won’t regret it.
Thebes Land plays at the Arcola Theatre until 23rd December
This happy chappie manages to take off all his clothes in a record-breaking 3.52 seconds. Yes under 4 seconds. We’ve been trying it in the office and well, now we’re a messy tangle of shoe laces and bobble hats (management have refused to turn on the heating – it’s like a bleeding scene from Muppet’s Christmas Carol here).
It’s Panto season in case you’ve been hiding under a rock, and with that comes shows that are silly and campy, some good and more than a few not so good. But does it really matter?
This year’s panto at Above the Stag is Beauty on the Piste, a reimagining of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and it’s exactly what you would expect, but perhaps a bit less.
This is the plot, in a nutshell: Morag (David Moss) and her son Mac (an adorable Ross Tucker) own a tea house high up in the mountains in a town called Les De Nice (Les Dennis – cue laugh here).
Passing by the tea house is the young lithe and blond boy Beau (Joshua Oakes-Rogers) and his father Gustav (Andrew Truluck). Beau is eternally horny and always on Grindr (we’re getting tired of Grindr being in almost every gay play nowadays). But nearby is where The Beast (Jamie Coles) lives, behind huge gates in an old mansion, and he’s hardly ever seen.
One night Morag and Gustav decide to take a walk to get to know each other better, but they are kidnapped by The Beast, and it’s up to Morag and Beau to go looking for them. They find them in The Beast’s home, and Beau trades places with his father to let him free, and it’s only a matter of time before sparks fly between Beau and The Beast. But trouble lies on the horizon; the gay Sebastian St. Moritz (Simon Burr), who owns lots of the property in Les De Nice, wants to raise the rent of the tea house, so what’s the newly rescued Morag and her son going to do? Throw in Mabel the Fairy (a cute Briony Rawie), and The Beasts housekeeper – Heidi (Ellen Butler) – who keeps morphing into various items one finds in the house- and what you’ve got is a show, with a sing-a-long, that’s full of glitter and glee.
Does it matter that the songs are awful? No!
Does it matter that this production is not one of the Stag’s better shows? No!
And does it matter that most (if not all) of the cast can’t sing? Of course not!
Why?
Because you’re not going to see Beauty on the Piste because it is sold out for the rest of it’s run! So perhaps console (or congratulate) yourself and buy a ticket to their next production – Bitches Ahoy – a show that bills itself as a “gay holiday hilarity” – hopefully it’s a return to the Stag’s better quality shows. Just one month to go until Panto season ends, whew!
Just one month to go until Panto season ends, whew!
Beauty On the Piste plays at Above The Stag until 14th January 2017
Coming this January, CBB is bringing you some of the brightest stars from past series as well as some new famous faces to battle it out to become the Ultimate Celebrity Housemate.
There’s been many loud voices in Celebrity Big Brother over the years and in 2017 Channel 5 are bring back some of the more explosive of those personalities, named the All Stars, to battle it out once more to the end with some new faces titled New Stars.
Looking back through the CBB series we wonder who will be reunited together in the new colourful pop art designed house. Will the powerful forces of ‘I know this will offend you Katie Hopkins‘ and the ‘24 hour Perez Hilton show‘ be brought back together to battle wits again?
Or, maybe Ken Morley and Biggins will be back, and hopefully not get booted for unacceptable behaviour this time?
Maybe Renee will re-enter to finally hunt down some Bear? Of course, we’re hoping for one great big gay CBB house with the delights of Julian Clary, Louie Spence, Leslie Jordan and Austin Armacost.
We’ll of course, keep you updated as soon as news is revealed on CBB 2017. One thing for sure is this is going to be a series you won’t want to miss as they battle it out for Ultimate Celebrity Housemate.
The relationship is so secret not even the judges have been aware of the alleged relationship.
According to the Daily Star, there is a secret gay couple in X Factor and they both got through to the live shows. They’ve somehow managed to keep their relationship secret from the world. According to that “close source,are” the pair became chummy at judges houses, suggesting that the pair could be in the same category.
“But they only got together when they made it to the live shows.
“Their families and friends know they are an item but they’ve kept it a secret from viewers and that’s the way they want it for now.
“Their fans have no idea they are a couple.
“Both get a lot of tweets from girls but they aren’t interested.
“They are flattered by the attention but they are smitten with one another.
Chicago has such a high murder rate that from 2003 to 2011 there were more murders there than in the same years in the Iraq war. On one Independence Day, 55 people were murdered. And in one year alone, 400 school kids were shot. With stats like this, a film with a message about violence and murder in the Windy City is seriously needed. But don’t expect it from Spike Lee’s new film called Chi-raq (Chicago and Iraq).
What we do get instead is a musical drama where woman ‘take away the pussy’ from the men in order to stop them from using their guns. This is triggered by the death of a local girl who is the daughter of a church going religious mum (Jennifer Hudson). This in turns leads Lysistrata (yes, that’s her character’s name – and she’s played brilliantly by Teyonah Parris), to withhold sex from her boyfriend Demetrius, whose nickname is Chi-raq (a surprisingly good turn by an unrecognisable and very buffed up Nick Cannon a/k/a the former Mr Mariah Carey). Lysistrata rallies her girlfriends to do the same, and they all band together to declare ‘no peace, no pussy’ while holed up in an armoury in downtown Chicago (the scene where Lysistrata seduces the general in charge of the armoury has got to be the most ridiculous scene this year). This sex strike makes the men crazy, they’re missing their women, and even the mayor’s wife joins the strike, causing him (played by D.B. Sweeney) to intervene in this major crisis that’s taking place in his city, and, of course, right before a re-election.
Lysistrata rallies her girlfriends to do the same, and they all band together to declare ‘no peace, no pussy’ while holed up in an armoury in downtown Chicago (the scene where Lysistrata seduces the general in charge of the armoury has got to be the most ridiculous scene this year). This sex strike makes the men crazy, they’re missing their women, and even the mayor’s wife joins the strike, causing him (played by D.B. Sweeney) to intervene in this major crisis that’s taking place in his city, and, of course, right before a re-election.
It’s the women who take centre stage in this movie; they’re sexy and hot and all of them seem to be wearing very little clothing, and what they do wear is extremely provocative – tight fitting tops and shorts – with padlocks over their crotches (yes, for real). It’s quite misogynistic. It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crises that are televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.
It’s quite misogynistic. It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crises that are televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.
It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crisis that is televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.
Spike Lee has a voice and the talent to make a film that could’ve highlighted the problems and issues dealing with Chicago’s murder rate, but instead he’s written, produced and co-wrote a satire/comedic farce that can’t decide whether it’s a musical, a tragi-comedy, or something so surreal and stupid that you can’t believe that it’s is unfolding right before your very eyes. The cast is first rate, including Angela Bassett as a woman who had a daughter that was killed by a stray bullet, and John Cusack as the local priest who has to preside over the many funerals that take place in the black neighbourhood.
The music is excellent and the locations and cinematography are all first rate. Samuel Jackson is ridiculous as a narrator who pops up every now and then wearing very bright coloured suits – his role is a distraction that doesn’t really help the film’s narrative. Chi-raq was released in US cinemas in 2015 and was a commercial bomb, making only $2.7 million from a budget of $15 million. It’s a film that’s likely to recoup its cost back – deservedly so.
The singer who had a rocky start in her time with the juggernaut show said that she feared an anti-gay backlash and felt forced to live a lie after getting engaged to her girlfriend in the summer. She revealed that she and her girlfriend, Meri were the first gay female couple to come out in Finland.
She said that she used to take selfies, but cut out Meri of the picture because she was afraid of the public’s reaction. She said,
“It was so stupid. I was taking selfies and always pretending I was by myself when of course I had my girlfriend next to me.
“It was my 28th birthday when I decided, ‘I’ve had enough’. I’d been hiding it for a year and couldn’t do it anymore.”
She finally came out by posting a post on Facebook, in an interview she said that she was so nervous that she actually got her girlfriend to press the “Post” button.
“I decided I was old enough to do something about it and come out. I was so scared. I couldn’t press the button to publish the post on Facebook. I got my fiancée to do it. We were so nervous. But it was good.”
Joe Crilly from Bookmaker William Hill said, ”
Saara has come from nowhere to head the betting at this late stage but the way this year’s show has gone, anything could happen this week”.
Odds for Saara to win the X Factor are 8/13, whilst Matt Terry is 2/1 and Five After Midnight are lagging behind at 11/2.
The breakout star of Strictly Come Dancing, Judge Rinder has been eliminated from BBC dance show.
The openly gay TV star has become the 11th celebrity to be eliminated from the Strictly Come Dancing show, after receiving the lowest scores from the judging panel this weekend. The judge faced a dance-off with Ore and Joanne, but in the end, his performance wasn’t enough to impress the judges who voted to boot the judge from the show.
Speaking about his time on the show, which has regularly topped the ratings war between ITV and the BBC, the daytime TV judge revealed it was a “joy” to be involved with the show.
He said,
“I know how difficult it is sometimes to be a judge and you do it with authenticity and enthusiasm and thank you all for your comments
“And my last thank you and my most important one, this truly extraordinary person, this teacher who has shown me from somebody who could barely walk to music with no dance experience at all to find a passion and a love for dance and that’s the best kind of teaching.
“You are never too old to try something new and everyone should try dancing, thank you so much.”
Okay, we’re starting to like this Mannequin Challenge malarky. Especially after this super hot rugby team stripped off for theirs.
CREDIT: SHU Rugby
This university rugby team have decided to bare all in their rather naughty / nice Mannequin Challenge. The Sheffield Hallam University’s men’s rugby team decide to get completely starkers to show off exactly how still they could be.
You may recall that this past season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars was a bit of a train crash for some contestants. Well, super judge, Michelle Visage has suggested that you should only go on the show if you’re “stable” and willing to take the risk.
CREDIT: PR SUPPLIED
Speaking exclusively to THEGAYUK.com RuPaul’s Drag Race super judge, Michelle Visage has suggested that the All-Star version of the show is tough going and only the most “stable” should apply; and it can be a bad idea if you don’t think you can handle pressure. Answering concerns that doing an All-Star version could cause you to damage your brand, Michelle said that there was always the risk of the audience falling out of love with you and that they could end up hating you.
In fact, you should just stay clear if you’re worried about destroying all the good work you’ve done in creating your brand.
She told us,
“There’s always that risk because if you were loved first time around and you f*** up the second time around, there is the risk that people are going to hate you.
“It can be a bad idea if you’re not sure that you can handle it. If you’re not sure you can handle it, you shouldn’t do it.”
But it’s not all bad if you’re up for the challenge. Doing All-Stars could help further your career, she told us,
“I think that if you’re stable and you know which way you’re going to play the game and you feel con dent, then it can be a really good thing.
“Here’s the bottom line, it’s a TV show. Somebody goes home every week and this is the best of the best.”
If you’ve never had a weekend away in Blackpool then I demand you book a train right away and head for the North West coast where you’ll find this unique entertainment town.
CREDIT: Pixabay
The seafront, known as the Golden Mile, is home to the world famous Blackpool Tower, three piers, the Pleasure Beach and the largest display of illuminations you’ll find in the UK.
Often referred to as the British Las Vegas, Blackpool has an entertainment scene like no other with a number of gay bars and clubs, live cabaret shows, theatres and amusements. Highlights include the Blackpool Tower with its famous Ballroom, the ‘Big One’ roller coaster that gives you fantastic views on the way up, and the new comedy carpet outside the Tower that has over 1,000 famous names and comedy quotes set out over 2,200 square metres.
With over thirty gay-owned and run B&Bs you’ll be sure of a personal and entertaining stay. So pack your trunks, your chuckle muscles, your head for heights and your sense of adventure as you explore the brightest jewel in the North West.
The Gay Bars
Flamingos
With seven nights of clubbing at the world famous Flamingo Club, attracting some of the biggest named DJs and club nights, you’ll be sure of a memorable night out.The club has an open to all, closed to prejudice policy, so you’re guaranteed of a great party atmosphere. The club illuminates from the brightly coloured dance floor, which calls for you to show it your best moves.
The Flying Handbag
One of Blackpool’s longest running venues, You’ll be in for a great time day or night. The long bar offers plenty of seating for a daytime catch up with friends and dance floor space. There’s a cabaret stage, for a whole host of entertainment, plus a snack bar, should you be feeling peckish during the party.
With all you need in one place, you’ll need a good excuse to leave.
If you’re travelling to Blackpool for a party, the Pride weekend or a holiday then you’re in for a treat. Blackpool has the largest selection of gay-run B&Bs in the world and all offer the home comforts and personal touches that you just can’t find in a chain brand hotel. Furthermore, the proprietors have pulled together to bring you the BAGS card – Blackpool Accommodation For Gays. Founded in 1997, the BAGS card will not only ensure your stay in Blackpool will be a friendly and welcoming experience but it’ll also give you fantastic discounts in over 60 establishments around Blackpool, including Bars, Cafes, Restaurants, Shops, Shows and Theatres. You can pick up your free discount card from one of the following accommodations.
If there’s availability left then try a stay at the popular Granby Lodge B&B set in the heart of Blackpool’s gay scene. Brian and Geoff have an unfailing love to ensure your stay in Blackpool is welcoming and comfortable. Plus they cook up one of the best breakfasts in the North- West. Rooms from £30.
Top Attractions
CREDIT: Pixababy
Blackpool Illuminations
Blackpool Promenade, Blackpool, FY1 5BE
Since 1879, Blackpool has been illuminating the promenade road which runs the length of the sea front. Attracting over 3.5 million visitors last year, the Blackpool Illuminations are the highlight of the calendar. Launching at the end of August, a well known face will switch on the 400,000 bulbs.
Pleasure Beach
Ocean Boulevard, Blackpool, FY4 1EZ
Tel: +44 (0)871 222 1234
The most fun you can have in one day out is all located within the Pleasure Beach walls. Carnival-style games, illusion and cabaret shows and not forgetting a collection of thrill seekers rides including the Big One!
The Big One climbs you to a height of 235ft. before dropping you at up to 87mph along the one-mile track.
Other unique rides include the Steeplechase where you choose a horse and race alongside other on separate tracks and the Avalanche where you free fall down a track at 50mph in the UK’s only bobsled ride.
Blackpool Zoo
East Park Drive, Blackpool, FY3 8PP Tel: +44 (0)1253 830 830
A wide selection of animals both large and small await your visit at Blackpool zoo in natural enclosures giving you a close up view of these magnificent creatures.
The Blackpool Tower
THE BLACKPOOL TOWER
Bank Hay Street, Blackpool, FY1 4BJ
Tel: +44 (0)871 222 9929
Celebrating 120 years the Blackpool Tower has been home to all the greats of British comedy. Visit the beautiful Ballroom with its famous Wurlitzer organ, rising from the floor. The tour starts with a 4D show on Blackpool including sights, smells, and special effects. From here you’ll enter the SkyWalk room at the top of the tower for uninterrupted views, including underfoot!
Blackpool Pride
Winter Gardens 97 Church Street Blackpool
FY1 1HU
Yearly event in June.
Blackpool Pride this year will be bigger and better than ever before with headlining act 5th Story performing alongside other special guests. The Winter Gardens are also hosting the European Same-Sex Dance Championship. So grab a partner or some friends and make sure you’re part of the North West’s biggest party.
