By Grace Hatchell
Queer Theatre has announced its Summer and Autumn season, and honestly, I had to read the list twice and put the kettle on. Play readings, live podcasts, acting classes, Pride events, showcases, cabaret, drag, a picnic, a swim, and a birthday party. I’ve had quieter Christmases.
I’m Grace Hatchell, Yorkshire postie, theatre lover, and woman who believes any event calendar longer than a gas bill deserves proper investigation. So here we are.
Queer Theatre, London’s award-winning LGBTQIA+ theatre and production company, is putting together a season that feels less like a polite programme and more like someone has opened the stage door and shouted, “Right, everyone in.” It is about theatre, yes, but also about people finding each other, having a go, building confidence, reading plays, making work, and possibly dancing until their sensible shoes give up.
The much-loved Queer Play Reading Club is back in partnership with Nick Hern Books. On Tuesday 21 July, award-winning playwright Tabby Lamb joins the club to discuss Happy Meal, a joyful trans rom-com about transition and identity, travelling all the way from dial-up internet to TikTok. Which, frankly, is a technological journey traumatic enough before you even add emotions.
Then on Tuesday 18 August, Iman Qureshi joins the club for The Funeral Director, her powerful play about sexuality, gender and religion in twenty-first-century Britain. On Tuesday 15 September, Tom Wells appears virtually to discuss Jumpers for Goalposts, a comedy about football, friendship and finding your place. As a Yorkshire woman, I respect any play that gets football and feelings in the same sentence without someone spilling Bovril.
The Show People Podcast also continues its residency at The Two Brewers. On Wednesday 12 August, Andrew Keates will be joined by Cheryl Fergison, best known for playing Heather Trott in EastEnders. She’ll be talking about her career across television, theatre, music and writing. That’s a proper CV. Mine currently says “can deliver in drizzle” and “once found a lost spaniel,” so I respect the range.
Queer Theatre will also be taking part in Pride in London on Saturday 4 July and London Trans+ Pride on Saturday 25 July. These moments matter. They are celebration, yes, but they are also visibility, solidarity and community. Theatre can be glitter and gags, but it can also be a place where people stand shoulder to shoulder and say, “You’re not on your own.” That is no small thing.
Then there’s Luvvie: The Party For Queer People in the Performing Arts on Friday 11 September, marking Queer Theatre’s second birthday at The Two Brewers. Two years of building space for LGBTQIA+ theatre makers deserves a party, and ideally one with enough drama to make the bar staff briefly consider retraining.
The OutCast Showcase returns on Wednesday 29 July, bringing together performers of all experience levels alongside new writing. That is the sort of thing I love. Not everyone arrives fully polished with a spotlight and a moisturised agent. Some people need the room, the chance, and someone saying, “Go on then, show us what you’ve got.”
The Big Queer Theatre Variety Night returns on Friday 2 October, promising cabaret, drag, stand-up and more. In other words, the sort of evening where you could arrive tired, cynical and slightly damp from the Northern line, and leave emotionally rearranged with glitter in your eyebrow.
There is also a Summer Picnic and Optional Swim on Hampstead Heath on Saturday 15 August. Optional swim is doing a lot of work there. I admire the honesty. No one wants forced swimming. That’s not community, that’s PE with better snacks.
Running alongside all this are Queer Theatre’s weekly Acting Classes for LGBTQIA+ people, held every Monday at The Two Brewers in Clapham and led by award-winning director and Artistic Director Andrew Keates. The classes welcome everyone from beginners to established professionals, which is exactly how it should be. Theatre should have doors, not drawbridges.
Andrew Keates describes serving Queer Theatre’s community of LGBTQIA+ artists as one of the great privileges of his life, and speaks about the company’s work helping queer talent gain exposure, find representation and access new creative opportunities.
And that, really, is the heart of it. This season is not just a list of dates to copy into your phone and immediately forget because you saved them under “thingy.” It is a season about making room. Room for new voices, room for returning artists, room for community, room for joy, room for people who have spent too long having to squeeze themselves smaller.
Queer Theatre’s Summer and Autumn season looks warm, bold, useful and gloriously busy. Bring your diary, bring your mates, and if you’re going to the Hampstead Heath swim, bring a towel and emotional resilience.
More information can be found at www.queertheatre.co.uk
About the Author
