Photos: Relish Theatre Brings A Double Bill Of LGBTQIA+ Entertainment to The Pleasance Theatre

The first two shows in Relish Theatre's Spring 2025 season of queer works across theatres in North London have laded at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington. Check out photos of the show.

Across the season of work, Relish Theatre champion new writing from LGBTQ+ playwrights with the three productions reflecting the experience of LGBTQ+ lives and tackling real-world issues through a queer lens.

Acid’s Reign (Pleasance Theatre, 5 Feb – 1 March) interrogates the climate crisis through a queer lens in a drag cabaret musical. The Climate Queens are ready to fight for their future with the help of a little drag magic, but the hot-headed, cold-hearted Alex Acid has other ideas. Fuelled by desperation, greed and a good dollop of corporate interest, when Acid feels their voice is drowned out, is it easier to just light a fuse and watch the world burn? Acid’s Reign is a new musical queering and querying the climate discourse, exploring the stories we tell about the climate crisis and the compromises we make to tell them.

Oh My Pain, My Beautiful Pain! (Pleasance Theatre, 6 Feb – 1 March) explores the cultural impetus and the pressures on artists to exploit deeply personal stories in their creative pursuits. Natalia makes the type of work people describe as ‘raw’, ‘brave’, and ‘heartachingly vulnerable’, and everyone loves it - critics, audiences, the people who do bookings for TED Talks. Everyone wants more, and she’s promised it to them, only she’s run out of trauma to write about. More specifically, her own trauma. A fast-paced satirical play featuring drag, cabaret and clowning exposing the personal cost of catering to an industry that demands more pain, more truth and more trauma.

Founded in 2015, Relish Theatre is one of London’s premier organisations for sustainable new writing theatre productions. Relish Theatre consistently champions the best new writing from LGBTQ+ playwrights. Their works reflects the authentic experience of LGBTQ+ lives, tackles real-world issues and topics, and celebrates the joy, laughter and love of the community. They provide a platform for the most exciting, creative and talented early-career artists, from all over the country, to develop their craft and share their work with others. They strive to ensure their work reaches new audiences, who can engage and relate to their stories. Relish Theatre creates their work sustainably, and they push the conversation of environmental theatre-making as far and as hard as they can.

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