Brighton Festival: Programme To Include 'Ground-Breaking' LGBTQIA+ Storytelling

This year's Brighton Festival will include storytelling performances by the LGBTQIA+ community using theatre, opera and music.

A 400-year-old ‘unapologetically queer’ tale, Galatea, is revived in an ambitious outdoor production and Derek Jarman’s BLUE is reimagined 30 years after its release at Brighton Festival, running 6-28 May. Elsewhere, renowned vocalist BISHI collaborates with the UK’s first trans+ choir, Trans Voices, for an exclusive performance and the critically acclaimed Abomination: A DUP Opera offers up hilarious political satire. 

Galatea. Photo: Rosie Powell

A Brighton Festival Commission and world premiere, Galatea is a story of love, joy and the importance of welcoming outsiders. Written by John Lyly, Galatea was first performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I more than 400 years ago and became the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s comedies. Now the subject of a major collaboration between award-winning theatre maker Emma Frankland; LGBTQIA+ culture catalysts Marlborough Productions; acclaimed Cornish landscape theatre company Wildworks and leading theatre historian, Andy Kesson, staged outside in Shoreham-by-Sea from 6 to 21 May. Set in a world where gods walk among mortals, two young trans people escape oppression, a shipwrecked migrant searches for his family and a teenage Cupid sets hearts on fire, in a remarkably resonant story for modern times. Brought vividly to life by a vibrant, mixed Deaf and hearing cast in both English and British Sign Language.

Derek Jarman’s last film, Blue, is reimagined by director Neil Bartlett, fresh from his hugely successful stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, on 7 May. 30 years after it was first released during the darkest days of Britain’s AIDS epidemic, just months before Jarman’s death, BLUE NOW sees actor Russell Tovey, award-winning performer Travis Alabanza, poet Joelle Taylor and writerJay Bernard delivering Jarman’s powerful words live on stage. Accompanied by a new live score by the film’s original composer, Simon Fisher Turner, this production allows audiences the opportunity to hear afresh its inspiring message of compassion, love and dignity under fire. 

Joelle Taylor will perform Blue Now. Photo: Roman Manfredi

In a Brighton Festival Exclusive, vocalist and composer BISHI will partner with Trans Voices for Celestial Voices {Swargiya Awaz} on 26 May. Celebrating Bishi’s recent album, the voice and electric sitar-led Let My Country Awake, choral pieces are arranged especially for the choir. The evening will also include the world premiere of a new piece inspired by Herculine Barbin, the19^th century memoirist whose birth date marks Intersex Day of Remembrance.

In 2008 Northern Irish politician, Iris Robinson, created a scandal when she referred to homosexuality as an ‘abomination’ on live radio. This moment instantly reignited the equality debate in Ireland and is the subject of the award-winning drag and cabaret satire Abomination: A DUP Opera (9-10 May). A politically riotous and emotionally complex production, Abomination redefines opera for the 21st-century as acclaimed composer Conor Mitchell conducts the internationally renowned soprano, Rebecca Caine alongside the orchestral forces of The Belfast Ensemble. 

A Queer Collision (19-20 May) is a thought-provoking and humorous collaboration between dance maker Stuart Waters and actor Willie Elliott, hosted by cabaret artist Ebony Rose Dark. Co-created with blind and partially sighted people, the piece features life-affirming audiological stories embedded with audio description and draws on Waters’ experience as a neurodivergent, queer man living with mental health access needs. 

Promising a visually stunning and deeply immersive evening, on 25 May Brighton Festival presents the World Premiere of a collaborative performance between local leftfield pop musician Evadney and Berlin based multidisciplinary artist Infinite Vibes, which uses AI technology to follow an abstract idea’s journey through song writing, performance, to the eventual connection it creates with the audience. Evadney’s profound storytelling and awe-inspiring voice explore his experiences of love, sexuality, identity and intersectionality.

A clubbing extravaganza at Brighton Dome’s historic Concert Hall, Our Roots, will celebrate the city’s renowned LGBTQIA+ heritage and community on 27 May. Brighton's own legendary queer club powerhouses UOKHUN?, Polyglamorous and Gal Pals, joining together for a wild and vivid night combining pop, disco, house and techno. A colourful celebration of queer chaos, the event will also feature DJ sets from BISHI and Brighton Festival Guest Director, the DJ, musician and broadcaster Nabihah Iqbal, plus visual art by Louis-Jack and Jak Skot.

Established in 1967, Brighton Festival is the largest annual curated multi-arts festival in England. As Guest Director, Nabihah Iqbal invites everyone to Gather Round in an ambitious celebration of community, collaboration and the joy of shared experiences, from 6-28 May. 

Additional Highlights:

Zoe Lyons: Bald Ambition Tour (14 May)
Zoe Lyons will examine her midlife crisis in Bald Ambition, an hilarious and jaw-dropping new stand-up show. She bought a sports car, had a brief marital separation, ran a 100k ultra marathon, and along the way her hair decided to ‘abandon ship’. 

Zoe Lyons with dog Groucho Barx

Munroe Bergdorf: Transitional (27 May)
In this very special event, Brighton Festival welcomes Munroe Bergdorf to the stage to discuss her life-affirming, heartfelt and intimate book, Transitional. One woman’s extraordinary mission to live with authenticity, Transitional shows us that we all transition and develop as people; it’s what binds us, not what separates us. Munroe will share stories of how to heal, how to build a stronger community and how to evolve as a society out of shame and into pride.

A Weekend Without Walls: You&Me (27 & 28 May) 

Part of a weekend of free outdoor shows, this energetic outdoor performance sees an ordinary man wrestle to confront all that prevents him from being with his lover. This short dance piece was choreographed by Amina Khayyam, a nominee for the National Dance Awards 2022.