The Boomkak Panto review – Virgia Gay’s playful love letter to small-town Atralia | Theatre | The Guardian

Contents:

• DRAMATIC GRDR ENUNTER AT A PARK ADDS CHAPTER TO SYDNEY’S GAY HISTORY
• TAG: GAY THEATRE REVIEW SYDNEY
• SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS
• GAY SYDNEY: A GUI TO CLUBS, BARS, BARET AND CULTURE
• THE 5 BEST SYDNEY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SYDNEY
• SYDNEY MARDI GRAS GAY THEATRE SELECTORS ASK 'HOW GAY IS GAY ENOUGH?'
• THE BOOMKAK PANTO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S PLAYFUL LOVE LETTER TO SMALL-TOWN ATRALIA
• RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

DRAMATIC GRDR ENUNTER AT A PARK ADDS CHAPTER TO SYDNEY’S GAY HISTORY

Warren and Edn choose a two-seater bench Green Park, Sydney’s gay-iendly ner-cy Darlghurst – a safe public space to ially appraise one another the (Steve Le Marquand) is his late 50s. He lls himself straight and thks of himself as happily married to the woman wh whom he liv a regnal has been beaten up the past, and remembers the moral csa to punish gay men at the peak of the AIDS crisis. Cred: Steven SiewertEdn (Joseph Althoe) intifi as queer rather than gay yet hems himself to the archetype of the “twk”: a photogenic, cute young man wh a skny build.

While the earlier versn of Green Park revolved around hookg up the park, was set a Darlghurst admired what the play had to say about the behavural chasms between different generatns of gay men, and the unexpected plexi of the two characters, as well as s ntemporary ronance: “It really engag the ‘missn acplished’ set of expectatns the straight world has of the LGBTQIA world, particularly the gay world, ” he says. … But so much ridual trma exists the gay world, and a lot of is exprsed laterally the way gay men hurt each other, are not munal-md and still engaged sometim a real battle for self-prervatn that means they n be terrified of vulnerabily and beg open.

”'But so much ridual trma exists the gay world, and a lot of is exprsed laterally the way gay men hurt each other. Audience members watchg Green Park might notice the large pk triangle stallatn, a memorial to queer men and women murred durg the Holot, who had to wear pk triangl stched to their clothg to note their spised sexual the bottom of the hill is St Vcent’s Hospal, where many AIDS patients were treated and across the fenced si of the park is the palliative re hospice where some are also shadows of the gay scene’s nghtier si. Edn is obssed wh his self-worth based on enumeratn: the numbers of followers on Instagram and “flame” ins om potential sex partners on the actual Green Park “looks like a nice place where gays active wear n walk their signer dogs”, says Greene.

TAG: GAY THEATRE REVIEW SYDNEY

A gay gui to SydneyQueer eye on SydneyMeet the crew: Heaps GayWhether you're gay, straight or somewhere between, you'll have a heaps good time at one of Sydney's favoure queer and clive Beard TIf you want to see Sydney at her absolute bt, go for a drk at Redfern’s neighbourhood art bar, the Beard T.

Pizza clud & BYO drks weleSydney Gay And Lbian Choir: We BelongNIDA - Natnal Instute of Dramatic ArtCommuny & Sydney Gay And Lbian Choir: We BelongA one-night-only spectacular! Sydney Gay & Lbian Mardi Gras – WorldPri 2023 |. Meanwhile, the troductn of laws that rtrict late-night socialisg central Sydney’s party preccts has severely damaged Oxford Street, the cy’s tradnal gay strip.

SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS

And, while Oxford Street is fely hurtg, a handful of Sydney’s “tradnal” queer venu ntue to thrive there spe of the challengg and mixedTokyo Sg Song basement Patrick Abboud, a documentary filmmaker and televisn prenter who -hosts and produc for the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi GrasThe biggt challenge for visors who want to explore Sydney’s LGBTQI scene is that only the old, mastream optns tend to be listed travel guis.

On Sundays plays crowd-pleasg hoe, electro and two most mastream venu for gay guys are Stonewall and Arq.

Lbian-iendlyThe Heaps Gay monthly rovg queer Geia Verkuylen, strategy and partnerships manager at Archer magaze, the Atralian journal of sexual diversyLbian-foced venu n be hard to fd Sydney. It’s also where the rovg queer party Heaps Gay has been held for the past uple of months. Heaps Gay is a massive event that draws queer folk of all ag, sexuali and genrs.

GAY SYDNEY: A GUI TO CLUBS, BARS, BARET AND CULTURE

To fd out what is gog on across Sydney regards to arts events and queer culture, keep an ear out for the rad programm Canvas (on FBi), and Gay Panic and So Hot Right Now (both on 2SER).

Thk 1970s performance art meets homoerotic dience teractn, wh a sprklg of straight at boys who’ve stumbled downstairs om the pub above. The productn of Angels Ameri 2014 was heart-punchgly good, and I re-staged my turbo-gay one-man show, Blue Wizard, there durg Mardi Gras this year – so has fely supported this Wizard was part of the Mardi Gras Ftival, which ns the weeks leadg up to the para March.

THE 5 BEST SYDNEY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SYDNEY

Tripadvisor performs checks on had a nice time at the gay bar here although everythg was jt a ltle sticky on the night we went. At a time when gay inty seems creasgly fluid and theatre makers don't necsarily appreciate beg labelled, 's not as easy as you might thk.

"Is this play gay? Is gay enough?

It's not always a ntent cisn as to whether a show is queer or gay - for example, don't have to clu gay characters or addrs gay issu. It's not even whether the people makg regard themselv as queer or gay. It's more about what our gay, lbian and queer dienc might enjoy.

SYDNEY MARDI GRAS GAY THEATRE SELECTORS ASK 'HOW GAY IS GAY ENOUGH?'

"Matilda Ridgway, Michael Whalley and Matt Mto om Sahlan HayWorks showsed this year's Mardi Gras Ftival range across the spectm, om those wh mastream appeal such as Gaybi, a verbatim docudrama about the experience of beg raised by same-sex parents, to Blue Wizard, Nick Coyle's one-man edy about a refugee om a gay pla who fds himself strand on agre that the terms "gay" and "queer" n be tricky to apply wh any certaty theatre. "For me, queer theatre is more polil and more provotive, whereas I see gay theatre as somethg ma for a gay dience, " Coyle explas.

There are much more subversive thgs you n do now than show gay sex on stage and chanc are most theatre lovers probably thk they've seen enough of that already. "The st of Gaybi (om left) Steve Le Marquand, Geia Stt, Sheridan Harbridge and Cooper Gee Wolter PeetersUltimately, a gay theatre maker should tell whatever story he or she lik whatever way sus, Coyle believ.

THE BOOMKAK PANTO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S PLAYFUL LOVE LETTER TO SMALL-TOWN ATRALIA

"Homosexualy cuts across every mographic, so there are untls stori that uld be told and jt as many ways to tell them, " he says. "Eamon Flack, the newly appoted artistic director of Belvoir, is gay and has champned gay plays and queer theatre makers his prev rol as lerary manager and associate director.

Notns of what nstut gay theatre have evolved over the past 30 years, he says. "A pany like Gay Sweatshop [found England 1975] was part of a broar set of polil movements foced on prence and voice and activism, " Flack says. "Back then, gay theatre was part of the battle for regnn.

For example, I thk playwrights like K Brookman and Angela Betzien have a very natural way of puttg gay characters on stage. The removal of gay-straight bari means there's more room to explore sire and s relatnship to genr and the body. "Director and wrerDean Bryant, whose new play Gaybi opens the Eterny Playhoe's 2015 season, says he no longer believ we need a genre of theatre lled gay or queer at all.

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

"When plays like Angels Ameri are done at Belvoir and Ltle Mercy or Calpurnia Dcendg at the Sydney Theatre Company, 's fair to say gay is very mastream now, " Bryant Taylor (left) and Pl Dowson Playg Rock Edwa PicklWhile the Mardi Gras Ftival do help pull a gay dience, a play like Gaybi uld n at any time of the year, Bryant says. "The characters do get very articulate on the ia of gay marriage, but Gaybi is not an 'issu' play. "Jeate Cron Queen ntrast, Shane Bosher, the New Zealand born and bred director of the bisexual love triangle edy Cock, which receiv s Sydney premiere at the Old Fzroy Theatre, believ queer theatre is the necsary bulwark to creepg hetero-normative naturalism gay theatre.

If that's where gay theatre is gog, I don't want to see .

"I want to hear next generatn perspectiv of the homo world, " he says. "Then there is the gay play that functns as entertament and tn, says Peter Mountford, director of Queen Bette, a play about Hollywood star Bette Davis.