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Promising to be bigger, better and more flamboyant than ever, Manchester's annual Queer Up North festival returns this month with a fabulous programme of events across the city. David Jones picks the highlights.
The internationally renowned festival - now in its 17th year - began its life as a small programme of activity held in the Greenroom theatre way back in 1992, but quickly grew to become Europe's number one queer arts and culture festival, and a popular fixture on Manchester's annual events calendar.
This year, Queer Up North (QUN) boasts more new work than ever before, three festival commissions, four world premieres and three UK premieres. Plus Manchester's first ever original Spiegeltent.
The 2009 programme is bumper packed full of theatre, dance, cabaret, comedy and debate, showcasing over 100 artists and performers from the UK and across the globe.
Appealing to people beyond the gay community, the festival has a 'something for everyone' approach, as artistic director Jonathan Best explains: "There's a diverse line-up, so whether you're up for cutting-edge European theatre, the finest drag shows on the planet or a night of ragingly glamorous cabaret, Queer Up North 2009 has something you'll enjoy."
Here are some of the highlights:
Ursula Martinez, star of La Clique, premieres her first new theatre production in over six years at the Library Theatre. My Stories, Your Emails is a montage of laughter, storytelling, film and live-art, which will appeal to anyone with a love for off-beat comedy.
Also performing in the city's Library Theatre, legendary New York-based performance artist Taylor Mac brings a spot of colour and glamour to the festival. Mac, who has recently performed solo pieces for BBC2's The Late Edition and BBC4's The Culture Show after collaborations with music heavyweights Fischerspooner, has chosen QUN 2009 for the UK premiere of his new work, The Young Ladies Of... The show, which has had two sold-out and critically acclaimed runs off-Broadway, takes as its generative material letters discovered by Mac that were written by young ladies to his father whilst he was stationed in Vietnam as a lieutenant in the U.S. army. It mixes song, film, text, cabaret and Mac's unique, hand-made costumes.
Further down the road, Contact Theatre will play host to the world premiere of The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley - the tale of an unlikely friendship between a lovesick teenage boy and a very unconventional superhero. This is a QUN 2009 commission by actor and playwright Chris Goode, a man who in recent years has been described by the folks at The Guardian as "one of the most exciting talents working in Britain today". The show combines intimate storytelling, original animation and music to explore growing up and getting braver.
Eat Me, showing at the Royal Exchange Theatre, is a new tour de force of acting and writing by the multi-award-winning Starving Artists, commissioned by Queer Up North. Written by Godfrey Hamilton and performed by Mark Pinkosh, Eat Me tells the story of Robinson, who roams the streets of Los Angeles in search of an identity. Combining beautiful writing and strikingly distinct acting, this is a real feast for theatre lovers.
Manchester's hauntingly iconic Victoria Baths hosts the world's first underwater opera. You who will emerge from the flood combines the talents of composer/pianist Andrew Infanti and Los Angeles-based soprano Juliana Snapper, who has developed a unique technique of mouth-to-water singing. Set in an apocalyptic future, where floodwaters have overwhelmed the land, the show imagines the anguish suffered by a lonesome aquatic creature tormented by visions of her human predecessors.
The festival's closing days will see the very first Queer Up North Spiegeltent, La Gayola, a beautiful hand-hewn pavilion built of wood, mirrors, leaded glass and velvet, on Sackville Street. Used as travelling performance space since 1947, La Gayola will open her decadent doors for some of the finest UK and USA entertainment talents, including the brilliantly butch Lea DeLaria - one of the hottest voices in jazz today. This, coupled with a return to Manchester for the hugely popular goddess of gospel Our Lady J, sees the festival delivering the grandest of grand finales.
Queer Up North 2009 runs from May 12 - 25 in various venues across Manchester. For more information and to book your tickets visit www.queerupnorth.com.
