Venue: Jermyn Street Theatre Run: Tuesday 26 November - Sunday 15 December; Daily 9pm, weekends 5pm Tickets: £10
Rating:
A unique production and narrative exploring an important and often invisible cultural period of pre-Nazi Berlin.
These seven "Weimar Women" are the exemplification of the queer, experimental, progressive Halbwelt set. Some are household names, some less so, but all the stories equally important and representative of many of the journeys women will have chosen and be caught in during the 1920s and 30s in Germany, leading to choices for a few to leave as 1939 became too unstable to remain.
Photographer Katie Traynor
Telling this important story through a feminist lens, via mixed media vignettes of dance, movement, song, comedy and monologue, whilst staying true to the format it recognises - that it has to be women that present the story. Sketches play tribute to these real historical figures, with appreciation, critical analysis, gentle mocking at times, and a great deal of deserved respect.
The show begins with an opening number designed to set the tone for the evening. Although covering serious matter, fun and humour will pepper the content. There's a nod to other familiar styles, a striking resemblance to the Cell Block Tango initially for example. The players flow seamlessly between dance troupe and the characters they are playing, styles of dancing, fun and sombre, and elements of the cabaret of the period.
Photographer Katie Traynor
Similarities in the positives and negatives of the Halbwelt and the openness of Germany have a striking, and harrowing relevance to the world today, not just London but echoes of issues in Russia, for example, or Nigeria are sadly all to familiar.
Halbwelt Kultur is carefully structured, cleverly woven, beautifully re-enacted, both funny and haunting, thought provoking, saucy and just enjoyable. Accompanied by contemporaneous, atmospheric live music, both joyful and sorrowful, gives the production an edge and extra depth reconfirming the authenticity of what the performance is trying to achieve.
The show closed to whoops and cheers and cries of "encore". By Katie
The Candy Bar, a sunny Autumn Saturday afternoon, Planet London sits down with former reality stars Tracy Ryerson and Stamie Karakasidis.
We had the privilege of a lengthy chat with the lovely women, over from LA to meet fans at an event organised by Lionhead Events.
Tracy and Stamie were very generous with the fans, and held an hour and a half long Q&A as well as holding a photo studio and signing photos and items for each guest individually. The Q&A was an open forum and fans had the chance to ask whatever was on their mind, discussions ranged from Hilary Clinton as the first female US President to the perils of starting a relationship on reality TV. Tracy and Stamie bantered away with each other and the fans, and proved funny, articulate and kind.
Ryerson and Stamie established www.ourfifteenminutes.com a blog site that allows them to continue the dialogue with all the fans and people they've met travelling all over the world.
Listen to our hilarious and honest interview with the pair, right here http://bit.ly/1hrwYU7
From humble beginnings in a bar in Soho, to the swanky Purcell Room at SouthBank, Polari, brainchild of, chaired and curated by Paul Burston, LGBT Editor at Time Out has come a long way and is still going from strength to strength on it's 6th Birthday. Described as the 'peerless' literary salon for LGBT writers, Polari regularly attracts the creme-de-la-creme of authors publishing LGBT content; poetry, novels and non fiction. Previous performers include Penny
Arcade, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Andy Bell, Sophia Blackwell, DJ Connell, Maureen Duffy, Stella Duffy, Fenella Fielding, Lauren Henderson, Celine Hispiche, Celia Imrie,
VG Lee, Charlotte
Mendelson, Molly Parkin, Bethan Roberts, Ali Smith, Helen Smith, Rosie Wilby and many more.
Each month, LGBT queer literary sublime afficionados are treated to five writers giving readings or other kinds of performances from classic or new pieces. A must for anyone interested in celebrating and keeping up to date with the best of LGBT publishing. Polari is the quintessential one of a kind event that is much needed to help keep LGBT quality publishing alive. As it's grown in popularity and success, Polari has had the opportunity to go beyond London with pop up events happening in Herts and next March in Hull. This month, the guests, many of whom are loyal regulars, were treated to readings from Rosie Garland's Palace of Curiosities (published by Harper Collins in April); Patrick Flanery gave a sneak peek of a work in progress. Paul Burston emerges from behind the curtain to open, host and chair the evening, introducing each writer in turn. Singer Dee Chanelle sang to help kick the birthdays into celebration, and posed the question about what resides in the space between fiction and reality. Following the interval, a great opportunity to network, drink wine and buy the books being read from, Helen Lederer introduced the upcoming prize announcement via a short but hilarious comic set. The second act produced Dean Atta's performance poetry, and Charlotte Mendelson sharing a subtle lesbian moment with us. Then to the award announcement of the winner of the second Polari First Book Prize, and presentation of the £1000 cash prize. The award is sponsored by Societe-Generale's LGBT Network. The panel, which comprised
Paul Burston (Chair of Judges) – author, journalist and host of Polari
Bidisha – writer, critic and broadcaster
Suzi Feay – literary critic
Rachel Holmes – author and former Head of Literature at the Southbank Centre
VG Lee – author and comedian
Joe Storey-Scott – books buyer
The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah. The Murder Wall is the first in a new series of crime fiction featuring DCI Kate Daniels. VG Lee, panelist, speaking to me just before the event, told me that the Award worked hard in its second year to encourage more women to submit publications for consideration. Following criticism of the lack of women on the shortlist in the first year, an outreach programme succeeded in generating 60% of entries from women. The quality of these submissions is reflected in the shortlist that contained three entries by women, and of course a female winner. We will shortly be speaking to Mari Hannah about what winning the prize will mean for her and her writing. By Katie
Date: Friday 8 November We chatted with the delightful Jade Ellis before her half hour set at Candy Bar. Jade was an X-Factor finalist in 2012. Since leaving the ITV show, she has been working on her music and this year has taken the plunge to establish herself as an artist. Jade says she's been "gigging, gigging, gigging" up and down the country. She's recently been supporting Cover Drive on tour, and has learned a lot about music, performing and fan relationships and dedication - "those fans that will travel from one show to another just to see their favourite band".
However the highlight of the year for Jade has been the opportunity to spend much more quality time with her daughter Caiden, of whom she is clearly very proud. Caiden has kept Jade company on the road and has been enjoying the high life of hotels and travel. As well as learning the guitar, Jade has been working with writers and producers to develop her own musical sound. She's settled on R'n'B as a style, which she feels is "organic" and reflects back to more old school "lyrics, voice and simple music"... but remaining flexible to different styles. Jill Scott is a huge musical influence to Jade, who is someone that as an artist comes from their "voice and aura", she says, "Jill could play even if the electrics failed, even if there were no lights... she would still be able to stand on stage and mesmerise."
Jade has been co-writing with Sammy Nathan and really enjoys the collaborative process of writing with a partner and how that can bring out the best in an song. And yes, co-writing does mean that we will soon be treated to original material being released.
We asked Jade if she has any messages for her lesbian fans, and she says simply "Thank you", she genuinely appreciates all the messages of support she gets. She also contributed her coming out story to the Diversity Role Model's "It's Okay to Be Gay" collection as she was keen to show there are positive stories as well as the challenges people face. We had a chance to cover the frivolous too. When asked what kind of biscuit she would be, Jade cheekily chose a certain cookie well known for being lickable... and proclaimed her favourite hairstyle of the year was that pink locks that accessorised the pink outfit on The X Factor (Ed's note: good choice) - she says "The hair has to match the outfit". And to the gig... the first two numbers were acoustic, with Jade playing guitar and singing to a crowd of young lesbians that had been building steadily over the course of evening. A medley of contemporary pop songs followed by an original number relating to her recent break up from her long term partner.
Her voice resonates throughout the Candy basement, powerfully smooth soulful vocals with a devastating range - from deep to high.
R'n'B-Acousto stylings of I need you (re-rendered from that X Factor audition, and Naughty Boy's La la la complemented the powerhouse version of Amy Winehouse's Love is a Losing Game sung with a secret smile, and the stand out surprise, an exhilarating urban take on Adele's Skyfall that stopped the show. Ellis is fan of the intimate venue, that Candy offers, and enjoys being able to "connect with the audience", and convey the emotions of songs directly to the crowd. To find out what's happening next and stay in touch with Jade, follow her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJadeEllis. New music is coming soon, she promises.
"Just good friends..." Available: http://www.onemorelesbian.com/tello/webseries/roomies/; Roomies is available via subscription, but The Neighbors is free Date: 2013 Published earlier this year by Tello, Roomies is the web series comedy that offers laughs a-plenty encased in slick production. There are characters you'll recognise brought out in their comic best. In particular, standing out is Julie Goldman's portryal of the recently heartbroken Sam who allows herself to become embroiled in a case of fake relationship to secure a great place to live whilst reconnecting with her "straight" best friend.
Full of dramatic and comedic irony, secrets and secret crushes, and the annoyingly hot over-sexed girls next door - and a mixture of physical and dialogue comedy - this series offers great escapism and good laughs. The attention to detail is also worth a note - check out the posters outside The Parlour - and gives this series the feel of real professionalism as well as content that's been made specifically for our community. This first series was put together in record time as Brandy and Julie were hot off the set of their reality series Gay Street Therapy. Christin Mell, director and producer of Roomies and The Neighbors says it al came together with great success due to "Magic! This might sound crazy but everything just
worked. It was very fast but everything hit at the right time and we knew
this was meant to be."
Well magic and fantastic production team, "we have quality writing and quality
productions because I have an amazing team. The Finks (Jessica and Julie)
are amazing writers and we have a great crew who enjoys working with us and who
we trust. When you have a team like that you trust them and know that
quality content is expected no matter how quickly things come together".
It was not a difficult transition moving from unscripted to scripted series for Howard and Goldman. Howard says "We have both done
scripted content many times before, but we had never done it together, so we
had absolutely no idea what to expect. For me, I thought I would be intimidated
because Julie is so funny and she's an incredible comedic actress with TONS of
sketch experience for her TV Show (Big Gay Sketch Show on LOGO). But, the
Finks wrote such a tight script with tons of great character development, that
it actually just all felt organic and fell into place. As a director,
Christin allowed us to improv and have fun with each scene, and we really took
advantage of that. Julie and I were so thankful to get to experience a
working environment like Curb Your Enthusiasm or a Christopher Guest film.
The story was there and the characters were there, and in that framework,
we were really free to add things and improv when we wanted to.
The bonus spin-off The Neighbors was not planned initially. It came about following casting, and there were two actors who weren't quite right for roles, but who Mell and The Finks felt that they could write something for directly. Mell says "We
always love trying to do something for free and so we came up with The
Neighbors. I'm not really sure who had the idea we just built off
of each other. I really loved the idea of these fun and funny
neighbors. We were able to work the shots into the schedule so we shot
The Neighbors when we shot Roomies."
Mell also announced that there will be a season 2. She said "We want to continue to develop this. It is being written
right now and we hope to go into production in early 2014." Something to look out for, for sure!
You can votes for Roomies as best Web series in the Ultimate Planet Awards, until 30 November here http://bit.ly/UltAwards
