Tag / Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

by nightwritessydney

Breaking the Code | New Theatre

Image by Bob Seary

It is painfully ironic, or perhaps just painfully familiar, that not two weeks out from the kick-off of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the Australian government was debating whether or not to legalise discriminating against trans people in schools. It was a pertinent, if backwards, reminder of the way LGBTQIA+ people’s lives are violently shaped by systemic oppression and unfeeling legislation. Breaking the Code demonstrates how very little can protect someone from legalised bigotry.

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by nightwritessydney

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche | Theatre Travels

Image by Becky Matthews

Clubs and societies, especially ones centred around “women’s” activities like knitting and baking, are often the butt of jokes about spinsters or old biddies but people forget what a safe haven, sometimes life-saving service these communities provide. 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche takes it back to the heyday of CWA stereotypes to find humour in dire circumstances.

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by nightwritessydney

Fag/Stag | Lambert House Enterprises & Les Solomon

Image by David Hooley

The dynamics of male friendships for a long time were a bit of a black hole for artistic and entertainment industries with movies and tv very rarely diving deeper than buddy cops. But as terms like hyper-masculinity and toxic masculinity have entered mainstream vocabulary, works like Fag/Stag have emerged to mine the emotional depths behind grunting and backslaps.

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by nightwritessydney

The Pass | Fixed Foot Productions & Seymour Centre

Image by Becky Matthews

Australia loves sport. It turns teams into families, players into warriors, and games into wars. And, as much as some people use sport for escapism, the industry has a long history of perpetuating, ignoring, or failing to engage adequately with global concerns of racism, homophobia, and toxic masculinity. The Pass flips the script, using elite sport as the backdrop to riffle around in these issues and their intersections with success, sacrifice, and authenticity.

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by nightwritessydney

Beautiful Thing | New Theatre

Image by Bob Seary

Being a teenager is brutal with the nagging parents, unstable friendships, and general boredom of school but it’s all heightened by the raging hormones and overwhelming pressure to figure yourself out as quickly as possible. Jonathan Harvey’s 1993 play is all about teenage angst but with the sparkling joys of love and understanding, too.

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by nightwritessydney

Falsettos | Theatre & Company

Despite beginning a gay relationship, leaving his family, and having his wife marry his psychiatrist, Marvin is determined to maintain his tight-knit Jewish family even if it means cold shoulders around the menorah. The final two acts of a one-act musical trilogy combine to tell the story of a not-so-normal family and its not-so-nice head.

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by nightwritessydney

37 Ways to Say I’m Gay | Tunks Productions

Image by Clare Hawley

Being queer in a cis-sexist and heteronormative world means a near constant string of coming out situations when you’re placed in the position to correct other people’s assumptions about you. Some coming outs resonate more throughout a lifetime, like with parents or close friends, but that doesn’t make any coming out easy. Here we see 37 different coming out moments through 12 actors and their 94 characters.

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by nightwritessydney

The Things I Could Never Tell Steven | Whimsical Productions

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Image by Zaina Ahmed

Steven is a difficult man to get a hold of, especially if you’re his parents, wife, or boyfriend and you have something very serious to tell him. This new musical from Jye Bryant centres an absent character in a story about the heartbreak, betrayal, and secrets that those closest to him just don’t know how to put into words.

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by nightwritessydney

Angels in America | Apocalypse Theatre Company with Red Line Productions

Apocalypse Theatre presents Angels In America Part II: Perestroika

Image by Robert Catto

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a piece of the queer canon for the way it depicts the state of America, specifically New York, during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Tony Kushner’s remarkable script overlaps the lives of five gay men and their families, nurses, coworkers, and neighbours over two parts, approximately six and a half hours of stage time, while also establishing these stories deeply within the political, economic, and social framing of the Reagan years.

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