THEGAYUK

Tag: London News

All the latest from London, the capital of the UK, home to the UK’s largest gay community.

  • London Gay Village To Stand With Orlando Victims Tonight

    Tonight the community of Soho and London, both straight and gay people shall be gathering to respect and show support at 7pm for the victims and families of the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando.

    CREDIT: © nito103 /Depositphotos

    Hundreds are expected to be gathering at Old Compton Street, Soho, to pay respect for the 50 people killed and over 53 hospitalised in a terrorist attack on the LGBT+ community of Orlando.

    At 7pm tonight, 13th June, everyone is invited to come out onto the street to hold hands. Local bars and businesses shall stop serving during this time.

    You can keep up-to-date on the official FaceBook page for more information.

    Volunteers are being asked for from 6pm to help with what is expected to be a large turnout.

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Suvlaki Restaurant Review (London)

    “Just a light lunch”, is what we said to each other a few minutes before ordering Suvlaki’s Exuberance menu (£34), which for 2 people consists of two skewers, two mini wraps, four sides, & Greek burgers stuffed with feta. A tempting selection of meaty varieties to choose from to go in your skewers or wraps, including free-range pork sourced from Essex, and wild boar sausage from Greece.

    I simply cannot ignore a boar when it’s on the menu, so a skewer we had of this, which whilst the flavour was really lovely, rich and warmly spiced, I was put off by its tough encasing that reminded me of Frankfurter. For my friend however, the boar sausage was her favourite thing on the platter.

    Now, I kinda wish I hadn’t taken one for team vegetarian by ordering both a skewer and a mini wrap containing the mediterranean style veg. In both, the vegetables were undercooked, whilst the meat we had throughout was perfectly cooked.

    If you’re cooking on a Robata (charcoal style grill- which, by the way, Suvlaki carefully source the charcoal of, to ensure a chemical free and responsibly sourced experience), you’re gonna have to give me some char! The vegetables were barely warm and were oily as they hadn’t been given long enough on the grill. The Chios island mastelo cheese chunks that came on the vegetarian skewer were humongous with a flavour very much like a slightly salty halloumi, but with a softer pillowy texture, and a suspicion of something sweet from their honey mustard glaze.

    The star of the wraps was the actual pita itself, which Suvlaki sources directly from a friend in Athens. Good portion size, warm, soft and chewy in the best kind of way. All of this, girthing something like the silky soft strands of tangy pulled pork we had, made a corker of a combo.

    The greek and lentil salads were very well put together, lightly dressed and really fresh. The beetroot and walnut dip was also tasty to dip a bit o’ pita into. But let me just gush for a moment over the plump, moist meat in the Greek burgers made from pork, lamb, and beef. Beautiful seasoning and spicing using classic garlic and onion, and if you’re not seduced by the first mouthful, then the mouthful where you find the oozy middle of melted feta will have you!

    Suvlaki’s chocolate biscuit cake (£5) does exactly what it says on the tin and provides you with an intense and rich chocolate hit, served with a subtly flavoured coffee ice cream. Definitely one for chocolate lovers.

    If you are a fan of ice cream and gelato, then definitely try their Kaimaki (£4), a buffalo milk Mastiha ice cream which was simply epic. The hint of mint that’s in there tickles on your tongue, and compliments the creaminess to bring about a masterful dessert of flavour and simplicity.

    The tables on the left hand side as you walk in to the restaurant, are not very practical, so opt for the right hand side of the restaurant (the side with comfy seating). Both our forks falling off the table due to over crowding of plates.

    However, dining in the restaurant is not the only way to enjoy Suvlaki, they offer a take away service, and delivery via Deliveroo (Check Suvlaki website for details). We were served by Richard, a lovely looking French chap who didn’t let us want or need for anything, despite having a busy lunchtime restaurant, and appearing to be the only waiting staff on duty.

    Whilst you’ll definitely be sorted for beers to choose from with their selection of Greek microbrewery beverages, those that prefer an extensive wine list may not get on with the limited menu.

    Souvlaki is often served as a type of fast food in Greece, it’s simple, tasty, and cooked well. Suvlaki of Bateman Street, London, channels this entirely.

     

    REVIEWED BY : @Lohanjordan

    ADDRESS: 21 Bateman St, Soho, London, W1D 3AL

    TELEPHONE: 0207 287 6638

    PRICE: £££ (explained)

    STAR: *** (explained)

    TIPPING POLICY / RESERVATIONS / ORDER ONLINE : www.suvlaki.co.uk

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Top Dog Diner Soho (CLOSED)

    One could easily meander past Top Dog (TD) on Frith Street Soho without a second squint.

    UPDATED: 26th Sept 2016 – now closed

    First of all, the name doesn’t grab you like Herman Ze German or House of Ho – but equally, it’s not as off-putting as La Polenteria – really, polenta-smolenta. And secondly, the dark exterior doesn’t wink at you – one has to sport a bright button-hole on one’s lapel to make an impression in this neck of the smog-laden metropolis.

    But you’re not to be put off, TD has recently undergone a bit of a refurb and has utilised the space upstairs by transforming it into a speakeasy bar. What they don’t exude in a colourful shopfront they make up for in cool.  A minimalist bar with ’70’s leaf-shaped and made-out-of-scaffolding tables, grey walls with a hand painted mural: think a merman Eddie Izzard in a spacesuit, sporting an orange umbrella, serving drinks – it just works.

    We arrived to the Going Live of all receptions; the staff are animated and personable – move over Ant and Dec.  We were whisked straight up to the speakeasy drinking room where two cocktails were suggested.

    Dill or No Dill: Gin, elderflower cordial, lemon, cucumber, dill and smoked sea salt at £8.  A martini-style imbibe, aromatic and citrusy. The cucumber tones down the salt – slightly bitter.  Not bad, but not top hound.

    El Chaplulin:  Olmeca Altos Reposado, Tio Pepe, Briottet Cacao and Briottet Menthe Blanc at £9. A touch of the My Fair Lady’s, a decent enough tequila softened by the dryness of the sherry – a fruity kick from both Briottets enhances tobacco flavours. The world was a better place once the glass was empty – Top Dog.

    After our sharpeners we were led downstairs to the restaurant. You’ll feel as though you’re sitting in an industrial staff canteen, but with a touch of the Hoxton Square’s.  More of the scaffold, simplistic bare wood chairs, tables and work counter all lit with factory-style caged bulbs.

    We shared all the nosh.

    To arrive first: Kentucky fried cauliflower served with home-made BBQ sauce at £4. If you like cauliflower, and you like tempura – you’ll find this finger-lickin’-good.  We then tucked into truffle mac and cheese at £6.50: al dente pasta – the truffle oil didn’t overpower the mild cheese. My dining chum vacuumed up the lot.

    Before choosing the food we were informed all ingredients are straight off the farm wagon and all the burgers and hot dogs are made on the premises. We think they secretly have a little abattoir and greenhouse out the back – f-f-fresh.

    Next up: chilli cheese hot dog, cheese sauce, lettuce, coriander, pickled chillies and red onions at £9. A sophisticated hot dog – quality meat, porky and beefy notes elevated by lemon and nutty undertones from the coriander. Chilli and pickle is like adding hollandaise to a poached egg and muffin – the ruler of dogs.

    And: pulled pork ’n’ slaw, slow-cooked pulled pork, apple slaw, lettuce, pickles and Kansas City BBQ sauce at £10. My dining compadre wasn’t keen, which made me very happy indeed – not a crumb was left. An addictive beef patty oozing beefiness covered with succulent pork all merged with sweet apple and tomato – hints of garlic and chilli and a tease of paprika – makes a Big Mac seem like a shrivelled up chipolata – we’ve all been there.

    Along with: sweet potato fries at £4 – overdone and dry.  The house white, El Muro Macabeco 2014, had a similar bouquet to carpet stain remover.

    Bung Top Dog to the top of your Soho easy stops to line stomachs before snogging hotties in the Shadow Lounge, for an easy-on-the-Gucci-purse-strings buzzy din-dins with chums or if you just need to fill ya chops with a decent, fresh, meaty flavoursome sausage.

    Review By: Thabian Sutherland
    Address: Top Dog
    48 Frith Street
    London, W1D 4SF
    Telephone: 020 3019 2380
    Star Rating: ★★★★ (explained)
    Cost Rating: ££ (explained)
    Tipping Policy: A discretionary 12.5% gratutity is added to all bills.

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | 155 Bar & Kitchen at Clerkenwell London

    Absolutely apt in eagerness for the release of Absolutely Fabulous The Movie 1st July, The Gay UK were PR-ed an equally fabulous brunch invite. We, emanating fabulousness were only too joyed to Lacroix-up, sweety, and head to Clerkenwell London’s (CL), 155 Bar & Kitchen in – you guessed it – scenester-site and trendy-wendy haunt Clerkenwell.

    Moi’s dining chum was running a smidge late – he said: “fell back to sleep”, we say: “Bolli Stolli” – which gave ample opportunity to saunter round the labyrinth that is CL’s 13,000 square metre concept store. The tour started in the nordic-loft-apartment-esque CL’s 155 Bar & Kitchen, a long rectangular room with taupe painted brick walls, dark wood floors and newfangled saloon bar with rich-teak tables methodically spaced. Chairs accessorised with sheepskin throws, Finnish wooden funnel-shaped birch-slat lighting shades and hints of a botanical garden. Clean lines, simplistic – cool and laid-back. Edina and Patsy wouldn’t grumble.

    From the restaurant you walk into the first section of the store which feels like a Mike Leigh filmset, only missing Alison Steadman, a 1970s Vinyl Lounge with custom-built decks facing a round Starship-Enterprise/Emirates-first-class style martini bar. The next room is a boutique selling hand-picked objets d’art and “gorgeous, tasteful, little stylish little gorgeous things – sweety darlings” as well as housing a glass and iron cube art gallery displaying works from local artisans. Each corner of the boutique leads to either a men’s or ladies’ tailors.

    You walk downstairs and you arrive at the Dior of furniture showrooms exhibiting the handcrafted haute couture works of Tree Couture – the Henry Moore of furniture. On with the exploration: behind a mahogany-coloured leather-tiled partition hides a men’s casual department offering On Tour t-shirts, Bethnals jeans and Stutterheim raincoats – we likie.

    Turn left and you’ll arrive at what looks like Nigella Lawson’s post-modernistic kitchen with a huge oak work-island for spreading avocados and racking up lines of coconut-chicken skewers. In fact it’s the mother of all wine-tasting rooms, walls lined with jewels such as Sophia Loren’s favourite fizz: Tendil & Lombardi Cuvée Rosé Champagne NV, and organic plonks from Chateau La Coste by one of the most gifted winemakers of his generation, Matthieu Cosse.

    CL hosts educational wine-tasting events – with Master of Wines Sarah Abbott and, wine brand developer and founder of Above Sea Level wine and culture magazine, Aimee Hartley – for £15 per head. We at The Gay UK are always keen to improve our already well-trained palettes – we’ll be booking in.

    And finally the piano room: another sizeable space that has a touch of the King’s-Road-avant-garde-lounge-bars, complete with private dining room and baby grand. Contempo ostentatiousness simplified.

    Appetite primed, back to the bar and kitchen.

    On recommendation I ordered savoury waffles: house-made waffles, maple-glazed streaky bacon and scrambled eggs at £11. Creamy waffles with a vanilla undertone worked swimmingly with the fluffy eggs and strong woody flavours from the crispy bacon – all elevated by mapley sweetness. My comrade went for avocado and eggs: smashed avocado with créme fraîche on toasted sourdough and two poached eggs at £9. The eggs were runny, and the créme fraîche gave our green calorific friend a lighter texture, colour and taste without the sensual gestures and voluptuous curves.

    The staff are slick and standoffish. Brunch is from 10am to 4pm – you can pay £15 per person for bottomless fizz, available for two hours from your booking time – we were game. They’ll serve you an award-winning Paladin Prosecco DOC Tappo Spago NV, flowery, light and aromatic with citrus notes. Not too dry or acidic – a bloomin decent prosecco. Dangerous with so much tempting merchandise on display.

    The Gay UK are looking at relocating to 156 Farringdon Road; failing that, we’ll just set up camp in the piano room.

    Reviewed by: Thabian Sutherland

    Address: 155 Bar & Kitchen
    155 Farringdon Road
    EC1R 3AD
    London, UK
    Telephone +44 (0)20 3675 8847
    Star Rating: ★★★★★ (explained)
    Price Rating: ££££ (explained)
    Tipping Policy: An optional service charge of 12.5% will be added to your bill

  • INTERVIEW | Neil Bartlett

    Alone in a silent room, a man waits for a knock on his door. As the minutes tick by, he remembers a life filled with daring and laughter, with parties and heartbreak – a life spent searching for the courage to be himself.

    Inspired by the true story of the strange life and lonely death of Mr. Ernest Boulton – one half of the infamous Victorian cross-dressing duo Fanny and Stella – Stella is an intimate meditation on the fine art of keeping one’s nerve as the lights go out. Performed amidst the newly restored splendours of one of London’s oldest surviving music-hall interiors, it is a theatrical love-letter to a truly remarkable person.

    Neil Bartlett has been one of Britain’s most individual writers and theatre-makers for over thirty years. His early work included the now-legendary Sarrasine and A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep; from 1994 to 2005 he was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith. Since leaving the Lyric he has made controversial new work for the National, the Manchester International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival – and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Stella is his first original theatre piece in London for over three years.

    I first became aware of Stella (Ernest Boulton) when I read Neil McKenna’s 2013 book Fanny and Stella. The story is both titillating, hilariously funny and devastatingly sad and I was instantly fascinated to learn more. I was excited to hear that Neil Bartlett has written a play based on the life of Stella and that this is being shown as part of the London International Theatre Festival in the beautiful setting of Hoxton hall in London’s East End.

    CHRIS BRIDGES: For those who don’t know anything about Ernest Boulton can you tell us a little more about him?
    NEIL BARTLETT: The real Stella was called Ernest Boulton, and he was born in Tottenham in 1848. His parents tried to get him to settle down to a career as a bank clerk, but by the age of twenty he was living a very different kind of life than the one they had planned for him. When he wasn’t trolling the West End in tight trousers and full slap , he was working as a drag performer under the name of Stella. On stage he was billed as a female impersonator, but offstage he could also pass as a woman. His lover – an aristocrat Tory MP, no less, one Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton – rented Stella a flat just off the Strand, and there the two of them slept in a double bed and told the servants that they were  man and wife. As if that wasn’t enough of an outrage, Stella also went out on the town without Arthur, trolling the pavements of the Strand for trade while dressed as a far less respectable kind of lady.

    In the spring of 1870, this glamorous lifestyle all went disastrously wrong; Stella was arrested in full drag after having been spotted using the ladies’ toilet in a West End theatre. Remarkably, she got off. The charge was conspiracy to commit a felony – i.e, sodomy – and though there was ample evidence that Stella was an outrage, there was no evidence of actual buggery on the night in question. What is even more remarkable is what happened next. Instead of hanging her head in shame, Stella immediately went back out on tour with her drag act; less than a year later, indeed, she had changed her name, dyed her hair blonde and was playing in New York, just off Broadway. So much for the idea that all Victorian homosexuals were unhappy victims! The work in New York dried up as she lost her looks, and Stella eventually came back to Britain to tour in the lower rungs of the provincial variety circuit, sticking it out until shortly before her death in London in 1904.

    Ernest had some hideous experiences and his story is a sad indictment on how the Victorians treated gay and transgender men. Would you describe ‘Stella’ as a tragedy?
    When I first discovered Stella’s story – which was way back in the dark ages of the 1980s, when I was researching my first book, Who Was That Man? about queer life in Victorian London – it was the young Stella who I identified with – the young fearless queen, sticking two fingers up at the world with her frocks and shamelessness. I was, after all, a young queen myself, and knew quite a bit about the pleasures and perils of trolling the West End in drag. Now I’m the same age that Stella was when she died, it is her courage as an older queen that intrigues me most. What kind of nerve did it take to play all those games with gender and identity in a century where no vocabulary existed to describe what you dreamt of being?

    What kind of nerve did it take to tour for all of those years, way past the time when her looks had started to go? Most of all, what kind of nerve did it take to make her final journey – we know that Stella died in the National Hospital, on Queen Square in Holborn, so having lived all her life in frocks, her final identity must have been that of an anonymous patient in a man’s jacket and trousers.

    I think Stella has a lot to teach us about courage, about keeping your nerve – so I suppose by bringing her back to life in this show I’m trying to give her a chance to pass on some of the lessons her life taught her. The show is dark, and funny – and uplifting.

    Picture shows: Richard Cant

    You’ve previously written about life for gay men in 1890 and compared this with your own life in 1980 in your novel Who Was That Man? Do you think there are parallels between the time of Ernest’s trial in 1871 and life in 2016?
    Now is a great time to be telling Stella’s story. Sometimes she was a drag queen, sometimes a flaming fairy, sometimes she was a passing “lady”, sometimes she looked and behaved exactly like a pre-surgery, pre-hormones cross-dressed MTF (Male to Female) sex-worker. She challenges all ideas that “identity” is a destination; she was on a journey until the day she died. I think that’s an idea we’re very open to right now, now that trans and non-binary people are doing all this amazing work to open our eyes and hearts and minds. Stella really asks to think about what matters more; who you are, or how you are. For me, Stella’s true “identity” was her courage.

    How did you approach researching and writing the play?
    I read everything that has survived – all of the letters and bits and pieces that were preserved in the trial transcripts – and I also spent a lot of time in the British Library tracking down the scripts of the plays that Stella acted in when she was on tour (there are some lines from some of them tucked away in my script)– and I looked at all the photos of her that have survived. That girl did like a photographer’s studio! Just as importantly, I talked to the friends of mine who – like Stella – live and/or work in bodies and gender identities different to the one they were assigned at birth. Fabulous people – Justin V Bond , Scottee, Rebecca Root, Jo Clifford….and some of the things they told have found their way into my Stella’s mouth.

    Picture shows: Oscar Batterham

    One of the things I loved reading about was Fanny and Stella’s language. The Victorian phrases slang terms were colourful in the extreme. Do we get hear much of this in the play?
    There are fragments of Stella’s original voice in the play – but it’s not a history lesson. I’m really trying to put the audience in the same room as her and just let her talk… though I must say, she does have a sharp turn of phrase at times, like every queen I’ve ever known.

    Hoxton hall is a stunning place. Quite a coup to show the play in such a pertinent place. Can you tell us more about the venue?
    Hoxton Hall one of London’s best kept secrets – a jewel, hidden away half way up Hoxton High Street. Stella is a very intimate show, all about being in the same room as this extraordinary creature, and so it felt right to find somewhere small and secret – also, of course, Hoxton Hall is very much the kind of place that Stella would have played – it’s an actual Victorian musical hall, complete with cast iron balconies and red velvet curtains.

    For this piece I wanted to go back to the way of making queer theatre that I used when I first started back in the 1980s, with shows like A Vision Of Love or Sarrasine – find somewhere fabulous and then lure the audience there after dark with the promise of a touch of naked flesh, a bit of cheap costume jewellery and a truly haunting story from our queer past. Since the 19080s my career has taken me to big theatres, the National and the RSC and all that, but I think I’m happiest  in the dark with an audience of queers and a truly magical space.

    Finally, if Ernest were alive today what do you think he’d be doing?
    Misbehaving at the Shadow Lounge wearing a fabulous outfit that somebody else had paid for.

    Stella plays at Hoxton Hall from 1 – 18 June 2016, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

    Post show events:
    Panel discussion post-show on the 7th of June with Neil Bartlett, Jonny Woo, Jo Clifford and more
    Dialogue Theatre Club on the 9th of June hosted by Maddy Costa and Jake Orr

    Follow Chris Bridges on Twitter

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Kenny Morgan

    ★★★★ | Kenny Morgan

    One of Terrence Rattigan’s best known and most moving plays, “The Deep Blue Sea”, has a disturbing and fascinating genesis.

    Written in 1952, the play concerns itself with well-to-do Hester who has left her safe but dull marriage for a dashing young airman and is living in desperate poverty, battling depression and rejection. Writing about gay relationships (which were illegal until 1967) would have been taboo and a highly dangerous move so he penned a story that was based on the events that had happened in his life but changed the relationships to heterosexual ones.

    Rattigan’s on and off secret lover of almost ten years, the eponymous Kenny Morgan, left him for a bisexual actor. His once promising film career floundered, his finances dwindled and he slipped into depression, killing himself in 1949.

    The play opens in a worn round the edges Camden Town boarding house. Kenny (Paul Keating) is lying in front of the gas fire having failed to commit suicide. The dank cellar of the Arcola perfectly houses a set that is utterly convincing and is complete with grimy net curtains, frayed carpets and a lingering taint of too many cigarettes smoked. The dialogue follows suit too and feels genuinely late 1940s. The script is a slow burning one and starts with a camp and amusing skittishness with a cast of inquisitive, prurient and concerned neighbours trying to help Kenny. The pace is pitched perfectly and the notes of tragedy soon emerge as Kenny hurtles towards his horrible fate.

    Paul Keating gives a moving performance as the conflicted and disturbed Kenny and is ably supported by a strong cast. Simon Dutton is a suitably suave and rigid Rattigan and Pierro Niel-Mee is Kenny’s rakish yet ultimately sympathetic lover Alec. There’s great comic relief from Marlene Sidaway as his elderly landlady.

    This is essential but sometimes heart breaking viewing and a moving glimpse into a world that seems a lot longer than 67 years ago. Mike Poulton’s skill as a writer is to make it easy for the modern gay man to empathise with the characters and their horrible predicament in a country blighted by anti-Semitism and misunderstanding of mental illness that was a potentially ruinous place for a gay man. However, he presents a more rounded view of the era also where alongside prejudice and bigotry there were pockets of sympathy, warmth and tolerance too. Difficult as Kenny’s life seems and as taut as Rattigan’s predicament was, it’s also comforting to see that there were ways of living under and around the law.

    Kenny Morgan plays at the Arcola Theatre until the 18th June

    @chrisb715

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Sins of Jack Saul

    ★★★★ | The Sins Of Jack Saul

    The Above the Stag Theatre is now presenting the new musical ‘The Sins of Jack Saul.’ Well who is Jack Saul you might ask?

    Jack Saul was a male prostitute in London who went by the name ‘Dublin Jack,’ because he was from Dublin. He left for London at the age of 22 and wasn’t sure what to find there. He eventually fell into prostitution and was involved in two major homosexual scandals. For it being the late 1800s, homosexuality was scandalous and even criminal behaviour.

    But what made Jack Saul famous (or infamous if you will) was his involvement with a lieutenant in the Irish army, and working in a male brothel in London – at 19 Cleveland Street (which in itself was a musical at the Stag called ‘Cleveland Street – The Musical‘) . So ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ tell his interesting and scandalous life through song and a bit of dance, and a helpful narration by the devil (provided by the handsome yet evil looking Michael Gonsalves).

    It’s a typical production for Above the Stag, and through this production we get to learn who Saul is and what were his sins.

    ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is based on the book ’The Sins of Jack Saul – the True Story of Dublin Jack and The Cleveland Street Scandal’ by Scottish playwright Glenn Chandler.

    Saul is played by Jack McCann, who is very good and believable. We get to relive his life, his life back home in Ireland with his mother (Felicity Duncan, who also plays other roles, including a French Prostitute) and his disapproving brother (Ciaran Bowling – who also geniously plays Lieutenant KIrwan – the army officer Saul gets involved with).

    We see Saul become an in-demand call boy – sleeping with very important people, including Lord Euston (David Mullen), a relationship that would eventually be the catalyst for the downfall of the brothel, and for Jack. ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is set to music, with appropriate songs to match the plot (‘I Always Wanted a Man in Uniform’ and ‘Pornography’) being a couple of the standouts.

    ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is a satirical romp through the eyes of one of London’s most notorious rent boys.

    The Sins Of Jack Saul plays at Above The Stag until 12 th June 2016

  • THEATRE REVIEW | This Is Living

    ★★★★ | This Is Living

    Alice and Michael are soaking wet and alone in a field by a river at night. Alice can’t remember what bought them there and wants to go home. The problem is that Alice can’t go back again and the big question is what bought them to this point.

    CREDIT: Alex Harvey-Brown

     

    Liam Borrett’s exploration of grief and loss is very impressive. The real achievement isn’t the story itself or the dissection of the aftermath of tragedy but in the characterisation. Alice and Michael are a couple in their late twenties, married with a young daughter. You almost certainly know them. Alice is outspoken, wilful and brimming with unrealised ambition. Michael is a little gauche and awkward and completely in awe of Alice. Michael Socha (E4’s Aliens, This Is England, Being Human) and Tamla Kari (The Inbetweener’s Movie, The Musketeers) are remarkably good and both give robust and forceful performances.

    We see their lives together through a series of potent and cleverly inter-cut flashbacks: their clumsy first meeting on a bus via drunken nights and bad dancing after a lot of Echo Falls, through to the news that Alice is carrying the baby that Michael so desperately wanted. The beauty of the characters is how familiar and ordinary they feel and the celebration of how seemingly ordinary people have extraordinary traits and fascinating stories within the routine of daily life. Sarah Beaton’s waterlogged set leaves the viewer feeling cold and damp and clever sound and lighting design allows for the brisk flow back and forth between past and present.

    The play has a lot of funny moments and Kari’s depiction of Alice’s seemingly brash Northern charm complements Socha’s devastating but understated portrayal of Michael’s ungainliness. The script is tight with a few minor slack moments. The painful subject matter is depicted with charm and grace and rarely feels unbearable but is still devastating and painful to watch.

    The play seemed to initially lose focus slightly after the interval but soon regained the mood and may perhaps have been carried better as a one-act piece. Nevertheless, this is an incredibly powerful piece of theatre and a chance to see two very talented actors realise the potential of a beautiful script. This is also Socha’s West End debut. He stated in a recent interview that he was feeling nervous. He needn’t have worried.

    This Is Living plays at The Trafalgar Studios until 11th June

     

    @chrisb715

  • Is This Homophobic? Butcher Advertises “No Drama Queens” Job

    Is This Homophobic? Butcher Advertises “No Drama Queens” Job

    A shop owner in London has been criticised for the language used in a description advert for a job in his shop.

    CREDIT: William Rose

    A butcher in London has been criticised after an advertisement for a job appeared in his window, where he asked that ‘no drama queens’ or ‘Mummy’s boys’ apply.

    William Rose, 60, said that he had advertised the job for Saturday staff  in his East Dulwich butchers for one month – but had received little interest in the position, but when he put the hand written poster in the window, he received 18 applications in one day.

    Along with no ‘Mummy’s boys’ or ‘Drama queens’ Mr Rose also doesn’t want ’emotional wrecks’ or ‘scruffs’ to apply for the shop position.

    Speaking on BBC London Mr Rose defended the advert by saying that previous potential employees had smelt of drink and had struggled to talk to customers, but that he had managed to find a suitable applicant – “a very smart young lad with a little family to keep”.

    According to Mr Rose, the advert was “just for fun” but an employment lawyer had told him that, “‘You can’t put mummy’s boys you have to put mummy’s persons’.

    The term drama queen is considered by some in the gay community as a pejorative term and highly homophobic.

    So do you think it’s homophobic or sexiest?

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Jamboree Foodfest & Bar

    Opening a burger/foodfest restaurant and bar with a sizeable backroom complete with stage for live music in a space joined onto a Novotel hotel might not seem like the most conventional of pairings.  But Jamboree on Blackfriars Road SE1 is a breath of rainbow-bunting fresh air for the borough of Southwark.

    Don’t be put off by the French, mid-range hotel brand’s corporate exterior.  The building is accessorised with a fun red neon Jamboree sign and their colourful interior can be seen from across the traffic-magnet main road.

    Once inside you’ll feel as though you’ve walked into a London take on a barn dance bar.  High ceilings laden with multicoloured bunting and exposed vintage bulbs, bare wood beams, walls, floor and tables.  A clean spit-without-the-sawdust gaff.  We approve.

    To wet our whistles we were pointed towards these two bad-boys:

    Fire Apple:  Fireball cinnamon whisky, cloudy apple juice, bitters and ginger beer.  It was like pouring an energetic San Francisco Stomp down the gullet where all the participants were hot-footing it in cinnamon-laced cowboy boots.  Not too sweet and plenty of yeehaw from the bitters and ginger.

    Knees Up: Blackwoods gin, basil, lemon, apple and ginger.  A few defuser reeds and this imbibe could easily freshen up the mustiest of rooms.  If TheGayUK owned a five-star luxury spa, the Knees Up would replace the complimentary cucumber water.  An abundance of herby, floral and citrus notes.

    We sampled three burgers, all of which were sandwiched in white, spongy, slightly sweet buns.

    Maryland soft shell crab burger: a sugar-paper texture followed by light fishy candy-esque meat.  Claw-icious.

    Racing Bull Argentina beef burger with chimichurri: succulent, gamey and moreish beef elevated by the parsley, garlic and punches of vinegar from the chimichurri – a burger worth saddling up for.

    The Yucatan veggie burger: a smooth sombrero-sporting falafeley filling with a hint of oregano.  My pulse-and-prune-eating pal polished off the lot, but it’s not for everyone.

    Thursday evenings, Jamboree will be filling their stage with live music.  The bar has been set high after hearing the five-piece band Gatsby – http://www.gatsbyband.co.uk – performing their own takes on Bieber, Bruno Mars and Coldplay – we almost buckaroo-ed out of our chairs and threw our stetsons in the air.

    With cocktails at only £7.95 and a decent burger for £13.95, we suggest you jump on the bandwagon.

    REVIEWED BY: Thabian Sutherland
    ADDRESS: Jamboree London Blackfriars, 46 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NZ, LONDON
    WEBSITE: https://jamboree.co.uk
    PRICE: £££ (explained)
    RATING:  ★★★★ (explained)

  • Is London’s New Mayor Sadiq Khan Gay Friendly?

    London has a new Mayor in the form of Sadiq Khan. We find out what his pro-gay credentials are.

    Is Sadiq Khan gay friendly?

    Winning over 1.3 million votes Sadiq Khan has become London’s new mayor. He took nearly 57% of the votes. So we’ve decided to look at just how LGBTI friendly Sadiq is.

    Voting as an MP.

    Sadiq Khan is the MP for Tooting in London. During his term in office he has, according to theyworkforyou.com,  “almost always voted for equal gay rights.”

    In 2007 he voted Yes on the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation), in 2013 he voted in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry – but was absent for its third reading.

    In 2014, he voted to “enable the courts to deal with proceedings for the divorce of, or annulment of the marriage of, a same-sex couple” and in 2015 he voted to make “same-sex marriage available to armed forces personnel outside the UK.”

    9/10

    NEXT :HIS INTERACTION WITH THE COMMUNITY