Pout - 2nd Birthday

Date:               Saturday 15 October 2011
Location:         Brown Sugar, High Holborn

Pout those lips, darling

It's always a pleasure to attend an event full of lovely lesbians, bi and queer women in sexy surroundings.

Pout, at Brown Sugar, a chilled out cosy venue in Holborn with funky light fittings on the ceiling, delivers just that.

A friendly crowd, that begins with the welcoming face of Elaine (owner of the Glass Bar) at the door, filling the venue (the queue was out of the door around 11pm), boogied away to an ecclectic 70s, 80s and 90s pop/electro/soul blend - not necessarily traditional floor fillers.

Drinks are pretty standard for the area, being £4 for a single and mixer.

Overall this is a great night out.

Review by Katie

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Pout

When: A regular monthly night on the 3rd Saturday of each month

Where: Brown Sugar, 146 High Holborn, WC1V 6PJ

Entry: £7 on the door

Run By: Pout is run by Elaine McKenzie

Official Description: A funky club night for women who love music & dancing. Playing funk, disco beats and cool sultry motown soul & Pop throughout the decades. Sounds of Chic La Freak, Thriller, Abba, SOS Band, Sugababes, Saturday Night Fever, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Lady GaGa & more anthems.

Margaret CHo - Cho Dependent

Date:               Thursday 13 October 2011, 7.30pm
Location:         The Leicester Square Theatre
Other details:   running from Thursday 13 October until Tuesday 18 October (Sunday 16 October in Brighton only)

Eat Sh*t and Die

Not for the faint-hearted, Cho takes us on a comedy tour that is at some points close to the wire, covering subjects from abortion to cunnilingus, that constantly kept the audience laughing.

Proud - of her sexuality, politics and cultural heritage - and most importantly of who she is, Cho does not hold back, telling tales in a conversational format. 

She also pulls the most fantastic faces as she characterises various people in her tails.

Cho also isn't shy to kiss and tell and gossip away and there are a few gems of truth in her stories of previous lovers and Dancing with the Stars.

Alongside a genuinely funny and very tight set is the unexpected bonus of her songs, think Victoria Wood on coke!

Cho is supported by John Roberts, a cheesy New York gay with many wigs.

Catch Cho until Saturday at The Leicester Square Theatre, a great little venue with bars inside the auditorium - well worth a visit (if you can still get tickets) or on 16 October at the Brighton Comedy Festival.

Twitter competition: Follow us and re-tweet our review of Margaret Cho for a chance to win a signed copy of her 'Beautiful' DVD. Winner will be drawn on the evening of Wednesday 19 October 2011.

Terms and conditions of competition

Review by Katie

The Killing of Sister George - the Arts Theatre

Date:               Friday 7 October (running until 29 October 2011)
Location:         The Arts Theatre
Other details:   2 hours, 40 minutes; Mon-Sat 7.30pm and 3pm on Thursdays and Saturdays

The Roles We Play

The Killing of Sister George explores roles - the ones we assume and the ones we can't helping falling back into when the mask drops, and the tension between the two.

Very well played by an experienced cast (Meera Syal, Belinda Lang, Helen Lederer and Elizabeth Cadwallader), it was a delight to see iconic comic actors giving their turn to these roles.

At times the comedy was possibly overplayed, but then maybe that's what the story calls for, as we are taken through the journey of the decision to kill of a radio soap character and June/George's spiral to inevitable breakdown.

The story provides an excellent commentary on what is real and what is not, firmly reminding the audience its only a show after all. Syal at times seemed unsettled as June/George, perhaps as June/George is unsettled with the killing of her alter ego, and thus the identity she has become, brought to excellent effect as Syal slips between the two.

Elizabeth Cadwallader as "Childe" offers us another exploration of roles, as the "woman-child", often put in her place by George, and then also willingly slipping into the role to suit her purposes and manipulate the older women around her.
Helen Lederer swoops in with the comic relief, suitably eccentric and over the top.

But it is Belinda Lang as Mrs Mercy, a caricature, an institution and a latent lesbian who steals the show, and in the end, the girl.

The play is a little dated (albeit staged on a sumptious and lesbian sixties setting), lesbian representation on stage and screen has come a long way, perhaps a slightly more modern portrayal of butch/femme, old/young relationships could have been brought in as Jesse Toksvig's essay in the programme reminds us.

Review by Katie

4 Poofs and a piano - Business as Usual

Date:               Saturday 24 September
Location:         The Drill Hall

Made famous by their stint on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross playing comedy dittos to the world famous guests, the band have also toured with Joan Collins and had sell out shows during the more recent Edinburgh festivals. 

However, Business as Usual is time for the band to take their spotlight, alongside their piano of course, playing musical comedy numbers and dancing too and entertaining in their camp, crude, non PC style. The big stage suits them well and allows the band to really show their full range of talent and ability to entertain with a great sense of humour and musical ability.

Property of Sand - a monologue by Eve Parmiter

Date:               Tuesday 13 September (also showing Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 September), 9pm
Location:         The Yard, Unit 2, Queens Yard, White Post Lane E9 5EN (free parking available in the estate)

Written and Performed by Eve Parmiter - Tickets £5

Weaving through reality, alchemy and myth, this is storytelling with delusions of grandeur. Join our unlikely alpha male on a dark comic quest through compulsion, control and denial. And the light at the end of the tunnel? That's love... isn't it?

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Despite our Sat Nav trying to make us drive through part of the new Olympic Village (i.e. what used to be a road) (if you get to this venue via Sat Nav, input a diversion to avoid St Christopher's Road), we made it to the venue - a tres funky theatre space within the Hackney Wick industrial estate (nearest station Hackney Wick). 

We loved the space, great industrial unit, really raw and incorporating a bar serving drinks and lovely meals (we had a sausage stew with coriandor and tumeric butter on rye bread for £8).

Property of Sand, a one woman show, makes perfect use of the post modern space. A monologue, well semi-conversation with the audience takes us through the nameless protagonists past and present to the suffering of a harrowing moment.

Eve makes excellent incorporation of props, lights, sound and movement to bring the conversation alive. The play is her short story, touching the surface of relevant moments to bring the audience with the character to the emotional climax, and then drops the audience there.

Touching, with moments of humour and poignancy, a well told story.

We recommend catching this if you get a chance and keep an eye out for more performances from Eve Parmiter

Review by Katie Hall

Glitter ball (incorporating L-Talent Final)

Date:               Saturday 10 September
Location:         HMS President

Taking place in the glamorous and glittery ballroom of the HMS president (which wasn’t too rough a non-journey for this sea sick reviewer).

We were excited - really keen to see what talents the eight finalists (2 from each of the regional heats: Brighton, London, Birmingham, Manchester) would have to offer, and we were not disappointed.

All the finalists were of a high standard, and it was fantastic to see a broad variety of acts  - singers, musicians, a sign singer, beat boxing and a fantastic comedy-musical act.

The L Talent final took up a large proportion of the evening, running over time as these things always do. We were treated to two performances of each of the acts, who performed valiantly through sound technical difficulties.

Voting for the winners was by audience text vote. Many of the acts had brought a large supporter group with them. 

Runner-up was beat boxer extraordinaire, Grace Savage (the London heat winner), who silenced the audience with amazing skill and sounds and stunning vocal work.

The winner, who received a £1,000 cheque (she promised this would be used to buy recording equipment) and all the glory was London based singer with a Geordie sense of humour, Lynsey Parkins, who stole the singing show with her popular renditions of Roberta Black’s the First time Ever I Saw Your Face and her own soulful twist of Valerie.

We’d like to also highlight our favourite act of the night, a comedy musical Caz and Britney’s Scotty Street Musical, a duo from Liverpool who tell the story of Caz’s journey from Primark to Prison set to the music of Chicago with a great comedy script and ad libbing and had the audience in stitches.

The L Talent final was an excellent showcase of what lesbians have to offer in terms of music, arts and culture, and a reminder that we need to get more of these women into the mainstream.

The venue was interesting and offered a good set of spaces – a ballroom well decorated, bar area and outside smoking/seating area. There was a decent turn out and a good mix of lesbians in attendance.

Review by Katie Hall

Bijou at Tart Bar

Date:             Saturday 10 September (2nd Saturday, monthly)
Location:       Tart Bar, 117 Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell, EC1M 6AA (from Dec11 Bijou has moved venues to Carter Rooms)

Cocktails, cocktails, cocktails

Walking into the bar, I immediately felt cool. Not the fake cool, the one that oversells itself and everything that supposedly makes it good, but real cool – understated, funky and chilled out.

Brought to you by Elysion Events, Bijou is held at Tart Bar, Clerkenwell. 

I won’t deny the approach to the bar perturbed us slightly (it’s on a quiet edge of the city, set back on a side street), however, it was worth the trepidatious trek. We recommend going to this event with a group of friends.

£10 entry (there are limited £7.50 tickets in advance) gets you in to a really sexy event – and by the time we arrived, 10.30pm, there was a full house at one of the only truly all women events I’ve ever been to.

The DJ played soulful remixes of classic dance tunes, which along with the decor, helped create the perfect intimate ambiance.

And then there’s the cocktail menus (see below), which includes a selection of sumptuous dessert cocktails (we recommend the keylime pie) and a range of discounted cocktails.

This is only the second night of this monthly event, and it has obviously been a quick hit, attracting a large number of diverse lesbians.

Tickets are available in advance and we’d recommend pre-purchasing to ensure entry by emailing elysionevents@ymail.com.

Review by Katie Hall