Le Gateau Chocolat at Contact

It’s been several years coming but Manchester finally got a taste of Le Gateau Chocolat’s sweet sweet award-winning talent at Contact last night. Forget lip-syncing for your life, the big, bearded and beautiful Le Gateau Chocolat is first and foremost a vocalist of genuine power, and while she might like to cheekily introduce herself as a ‘complete asshole’, her stage persona is life-giving and full of heart – but let’s talk about that voice… Baritone, velvet, dextrous, LOUD – you have never heard the Great American Songbook performed like this. Breakneck trips through the best of the musicals are punctuated with heart-breaking interludes where wigs and music are stripped back for moments of real tenderness. At one point a delicate ‘Hoppipolla’-style piano scale underpins the most touching Whitney Houston interpretation you might ever hear.

The best drag performers have comedy and tragedy at the tips of their gloves, and the music of Ms Chocolat moves deftly between the two. The potted version of Les Miserables will make you want to fast forward through every musical film ever with Gateau on the couch bedside you – hilarious. It’s offset emotionally with moments such as an astonishing tribute to Paul Robeson, where Gateau brings her basso profundo to the painful, beautiful, dignified slave narrative of Robeson’s ‘Old Man River’. It’s a very moving and special moment to see a large, powerful and adored black queer body and voice in all their power.  Queer culture should always be about celebrating that which the mainstream designates as ‘odd’ and ‘other’. Le Gateau Chocolat celebrates herself, and the audience follows lovingly. ‘I have a law degree you know,’ she says, as she switches from one dazzling lycra creation to the next. Defying expectations is where great art begins, of course.

Fortnight: A mysterious interactive Mancunian art happening...

This sounds intriguing...

Emanating from the Contact but taking in the whole city, an interactive theatrical experience entitled ‘Fortnight’ is coming in April.

You register by a simple text message and then a series of messages and rendezvous will put a new slant on the city for you over two weeks of interactive japes.

The whole thing sounds wonderfully psychogeographic. If it’s anything like the Lost and Found Festival last year it’ll be great fun.

Watch the short teaser clip below for info on how to register. Get signed up, I’ll see you out there...

Q&A with Bryony Kimmings …

Mother’s Ruin provides a spiritual home for queer performance renegades, outré comedy extravaganzas and fabulous show-offs in general. On Friday 23 September MR returns to Contact Theatre Manchester for a special event featuring adorable hostess Timberlina, avante drag artiste Dickie Beau, and most exciting of all for me, Bryony Kimmings’ ‘7 Day Drunk’ which has wowed and wooed audiences in Soho and Edinburgh and is now gracing your very own doorstep. I grilled Bryony about performance, booze and the gritty facts of life …

Tell us about your very first foray into performance?

I used to dress up in my mums skirts and heels in the back garden of our little council house and do the Tarantella for our neighbours aged 6. I think I must have been watching Top of the Pops as my mum said it had a strong Kate Bush vibe!!

Apart from that, after graduating I took a piece to a few festivals around the UK with some friends in a company. We were robot clones on a journey to save the world. Kind of cartoon live art… a bit rubbish but it certainly cut our teeth!

Edinburgh Fringe: is it the best gig in the world? What was the highlight?

The best gig in the world?! NO, the best gig in the world would be main stage at Bestival with Bjork on one side of me and David Bowie on the other doing some kind of triple mash up with some uber-keyboard rifts!

BUT it is certainly an amazing festival to be part of, always something to see, do, eat, run at, love or vomit onto. The highlight for me was quite simple… my favourite artist Taylor Mac coming to see my show. Felt like a doofus all the way through trying my best to stop myself screaming out “Hey Taylor! Thanks for coming man, loving your work!”

‘Sex Idiot’ took an STI test as a starting point, much like the piece by David Hoyle. Does your work need to be brutally personal? Do you think you could make art that was a complete fiction?

I think I CAN make work from complete fiction, I write stories, one day I would like to write a film.

BUT I think there is something more connective, visceral, appealing and endearing about a work that comes from the heart and soul of another human being, this is why I identify myself as a Live Artist, not a theatre maker or playwright.

I use my own stories to lube up other peoples recollection of stories and times in their lives, to begin exploring something I find (and hope others find!) interesting. I have no intention thus far to make things up in my own solo performance work… my next show is about other peoples stories, so stepping away from simply my boring life and moving towards others too, I guess as a natural progression!

Your new piece ‘7 Day Drunk’ is about the creative urges that come out of getting lashed. Do you have a love affair with booze and are pissheads just ruining it for the rest of us?

I don’t really know what this question means? I don’t have a love affair with booze, I think I have a normal young women’s relationship, slightly hazy at points, often worrying but not an addiction.

BUT I am fascinated with it as a social construct, as a habitual legal but fatal drug, as a blip in history and an amazingly fun but destructive past time. People should be more aware about the affects and what it does to people, fact. We all quaff it down without asking questions. Like SOMA in Brave New World!

Which other performers do you admire?

Currently I am hot for…

Scottee

Amy Lame

Taylor Mac

Miranda July

Neil Hamburger

Dr Brown

Dan Canham

Concha Buika

Laura Marlin

Mixed bunch… I have art crushes a lot!

Quick fire round …

Milk or Martini?

Milk

London or Leamington Spa?

London

Gender or bender?

Both, man.

H&M or Harrods?

Harrods for glamour, H&M for me bits.

One night stands or one true love?

One true love of course, else all is lost!

Tickets for Mother's Ruin are available HERE and HERE.

Thanks to Bryony Kimmings and James Stanley.

Lost and Found Festival

The notion of going to a gallery or performance space to look at art then getting on with your life is a bit passé, it’s far more fun and thought provoking when you happen on the arts in day to day life, or better yet when they happen upon you.

Lost & Found is a new festival of pop-up performance and impromptu art that’s spreading from the Contact Theatre across the city of Manchester. Featuring dancing on trams, art at the Arndale Centre and al fresco opera, Lost and Found takes place in a variety of non-arts venues and public spaces across the city before culminating with a day of innovative work at the Contact on Saturday 11th June.

All performances are free, with the exception of Reykjavik (see below). Here's the lowdown:

Lose yourself in the city …

Metrolink Moving Theatre

Mon 6th to Fri 10th, 11am to 4pm

A Metrolink tram is home to a week of dance, music, and commuter arts-and craft.

Elemental Opera

Wed 8th to Fri 10th, 12pm to 2pm

Manchester’s very own opera collective perform scenes from Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in the city streets.

If You Speak I Will Listen

Thu 9th , 12pm to 5pm

Poet Fergus Evans presents an intimate performance centred around the act of listening at Nexus Art Café. (Free, but booking required).

Mixed Movement

Thu 9th, 12pm to 1pm

Fri 10th, 4pm to 5pm

Contact’s dance company transforms the fountains in Piccadilly Gardens with a unique performance.

Akemi Arts In The Arndale

Fri10th, 1pm to 4pm

Akemi Arts transforms the basement of HMV Arndale into a cavern of music, spoken word and live art.

A Night Of Found Arts

Fri 10th, 7pm to 10.30pm

An evening of outdoor music, film and theatre at Bridgewater Hall’s Piazza including Elemental Opera’s abridged Cosi Fan Tutte and bicycle-powered cinema courtesy of PoWWow Pedal Power.

Indemnity, Part I: A Week in Walter’s Life

Unique seven-day multi-platform performance tracing the complicated life of salesman Walter Daniel. Artist Marcus Lilley utilises Twitter, text messages, emails, video and photography to unfold the drama. To register for involvement email your mobile number to w.danielcit@gmail.com and sit tight …

Find yourself at Contact …

Reykjavik

Tue 7th to Sat 11th, £10/6

Shams present a stunning promenade performance exploring love, memory and the architecture of the mind.

On Sat 11th June, Lost & Found takes over Contact for a day of innovative work and daring discovery …

The Stars Were Bright And I Was In Canada

Artist Laura Purling presents a part-performance, part-installation exploring the relationship between memory and smell.

Anonymous

Façade Theatre explore personal and global struggles in a rolling performance where audience members will be asked to leave something of themselves behind.

A Room To Say Goodbye In

Poet Fergus Evans presents an intimate interactive installation about letting go and saying goodbye. Booking required.

Kiss My Heart

Join Sarah Evans in her small pink tent for an individual, interactive performance about love.

Harbingers

Strangers have been seen in Manchester with a message about the end of the world! Have you seen them? Join Larkin’ About in this interactive apocalyptic game.

Indemnity, Part II: The Finale

Following a week of online performance, artist Marcus Lilley offers a glimpse into Walter Daniel’s real world.

The Lost & Found Sessions

Music throughout the day from local artists.

Lost & Found has been produced by Re:Con, Contact’s Young Programming and Producing Team. Established last year Re:Con offers young people the opportunity to directly shape Contact’s programme, develop their professional practice and produce their own festival. Re:Con this year are: Phil Brankin, Alex Browning, Jennifer Gaskell and Rachel Moorhouse. Lost & Found Festival 2011 is supported by Metrolink, Ideas Tap, PoWWow Pedal Power, O2 Think Big, Nexus Art Café and HMV.

See Contact website here.

Mother’s Pride: Bank holiday performance, music, comedy and greenroom goodbyes

Next weekend in Manchester is a real biggun and you need to start planning NOW. Here’s something to get you started …

Friday 27th May at the greenroom: Mother’s Ruin

In Time Out’s annual London guide each year, the biog of a London persona is selected to grace the opening pages and thereby indicate the cultural landscape of the capital. Last year that honour went to a young queer performance artist. His name is Scottee. And somebody didn’t love him enough. The bastard offspring of Penny Arcade and Divine David will be in residence at a ‘Pop Up Greasy Spoon’ all afternoon at the greenroom where you can come face to face with this force of queer nature. Make your booking for tea and possible sympathy on 0161 615 0500.

Scottee

That same evening is given to a celebration of the ‘Cake Tin Foundation’ (give it a second …) in the form of a variety show hosted by the effervescent Timberlina. Highlight for me will be The Smiths: The Musical, performed with puppets and Casios. I shit you not, behold:

That same night I am hotfooting across town to play the opening slot at Clique, more of which soon …

Saturday 28th May: Mother Cares at Contact Theatre

Mrs Barbara Nice

A pristine line-up graces a FREE daytime experience at the Contact Theatre, beginning at 3pm. ‘Creative sessions exploring themes of belonging and home.’ David Hoyle and Barbara Nice are amongst the participants, reason enough to swing by.

David Hoyle

The evening event is ticketed and features performances of two self-authored plays concerning coming out, one by aforementioned Scottee, the other by The Fabulous Russella. After you’ve all traded your coming out tales, stick around to celebrate with a special club night, a knees-up soundclash between Bollox (represented by yours truly) and the Sapphic Traffic posse from Leeds.

Russella

Sunday 29th May: Listen With Mother at the greenroom

Wind down in acoustic bliss from 3 pm till late with a roster of musicians including the magnificent Owen Duff and new local talent The Speils. Daytime is free, evening is ticketed.

Owen Duff

Remember, Manchester is losing the wonderful greenroom to the tragic Arts Council cuts. Come along at the weekend for your last chance to witness what this terrific small venue always did best. Why not treat yourself to a weekend pass, pinball between here and Eurocultured, drink, think, dance, remember and be merry.

Off The Hook: Queer Contact Closing Party

DJing went a bit quiet during my writerly hibernation but I'm back with a vengeance, eight gigs lined up for the coming months, kicking off this Saturday (that's tomorrow!) with Off The Hook throwing the closing party for the Contact Theatre's Queer season. What an honour, and such a cool space to play, very different to our usual sweaty basement shenanigans. For the uninitiated we play quality Black pop music from across the decades, this means hip-hop and r 'n' b, with a smattering of disco, Motown, reggae, ragga, Hi-NRG and ska.

Here's a rundown of some Off The Hook floor-fillers ...

'Shy Guy' - Diana King

'Jayou' - Jurassic 5

'No Scrubs' - TLC

'Mama Said Knock You Out' - LL Cool J

'Mr Wendal' - Arrested Development

'Dare Me' - Pointer Sisters

'None Of Your Business' - Salt N Pepa

'Informer' - Snow

'It's A Shame (My Sister)' - Monie Love

'Miss You Much' - Janet Jackson

We might even play the theme tune to 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'

Facebook event page is HERE.

Spotify taster HERE.

Come pester me in the DJ booth.