Camden People's Theatre Launches Festival Exploring Trans, Non-Binary and Gender-Queer Themes

For its brand new festival Come As You Are, Camden People's Theatre welcomes a host of gender-anarchists with more questions than answers, as we confront (and solve?) all the world's issues regarding female, male, between and beyond. It's not going to be pretty - but it might just be beautiful.

In the last few years, progressive thinking about gender has gone mainstream, and understanding has developed of gender as infinite variety. More and more individuals are reclaiming the right to define their genders, their bodies, their selves. Some have called this "the ultimate forum for self-expression", some "the next civil rights frontier". Either way, it's a destabilising and liberating cultural change. Come join us at CPT as we interrogate and celebrate gender from cis to trans, from binary to beyond.

Come As You Are will be headlined by Bullish by Milk Presents, commissioned by CPT and supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Also in the programme, Shorty by Hester Chillingworth of the cult performance collective Getinthebackofthevan; the cabaret lecture Journey from Man to Woman by CPT favourite and performance art superstar Mamoru Iriguchi an experimental new work from Ellie (Are You Lonesome Tonight?) Stamp; and brand new works-in-progress - at our Big Bang events - by artists including Tom Marshman, Griffyn Giligan (Hir, Bush Theatre) and Azara Meghie

Come As You Are is the latest in a series of cutting-edge performance festivals at CPT addressing contemporary political, social or cultural themes. Recent successes include 'Whose London Is It Anyway?' (2016, on the housing crisis), 'Calm Down, Dear' (2013-18, on feminism) and 'Hotbed' (2017, exploring sex and sexuality).

BULLISH

Tue 12 - Sat 30 Sep, 7.15pm

Milk Presents

Award-winning Milk Presents drop a bull into a gender shop and hope it breaks everything. A wild show about not taming the minotaur within. Written from testimony and personal experience BULLISH combines ancient mythology with modern gender negotiation. Inspired by Ovid's Minotaur, a gender-fierce ensemble of hopers and renegades try to pass, pack and blag their way out of the labyrinth.

Commissioned by CPT and supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation

"Theatre that flies in the face of convention" The Stage on Milk Presents

£12 / 10 (conc)

Salvation: Shamanic Striptease

Tue 12 Sep, 9pm

Daniel P Cunningham & Mark J Hamilton

Salvation: Shamanic Striptease exposes Daniel's body, voice and memories as a healing process extended to audiences. It uses 'black' and 'white' movement vocabularies to interrogate his white African identity. The legacies of Apartheid and Mandela's Rainbow Nation flow through him where they intercept his queer sexuality.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Raising Our Voices

Wed 13, Wed 20 & Wed 27 Sep, 9pm

LGBTQ Arts

This year The LGBTQ Arts Review are seeking to platform the lesser heard LGBTQ+ voices: trans, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, trans and intersectional LGBTQ+ voices. Here they curate three evenings of engaging, political and thought-provoking performance for you directly from the Raising Our Voices project.

For this festival we will bring an exciting new piece of devised work to CPT, alongside an evening of four shorter pieces all developed through the Raising Our Voices Project. As well as performance, expect vibrant installation and a chance to engage.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Pecs: The Gender Agenda

Fri 15 Sep, 9pm

Pecs: Drag King Collective

Hey, it's those Drag Kings again, and we want to talk about GENDER, SEX and FEELINGS.

How does our idea of our own gender change when we let someone else explore our body? Following the sold-out Pecs: Let's Talk about Sex at CPT's 'Hotbed' festival, we bring you the second instalment of our workshop performance series

£8 (work-in-progress)

The Fems

Sat 16 Sep, 9pm

House of Idiot

THE FEMS are a gaggle of garish, lipstick-smeared flamingo monsters taking swipes at the patriarchy, Yorkie bars, or anything insisting pink is for girls and blue is for boys. It is a riotous, vicious, silly one-chorus cabaret attacking masc vs fem and the systems that protect this perfidious framework.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Big Bang

Mon 18 & Mon 25 Sep, 7.30pm

Various artists

Our regular night of works-in-progress returns for two special editions, exploring the themes of the festival. Featuring work from Azara Meghie, Tom Marshman, Griffyn Gilligan, Shambles Theatre and more.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Drag Me To Love

Tue 19 Sep, 7.15pm

Bonnie and The Bonnettes

It's golden stilettos, ripped fishnets, shoulder pads, and neon bobs. It's Doncaster, 2009. This autobiographical, three-person show combines drag performance with theatrical storytelling following Cameron as he throws himself into a pair of 6-inch stilettos.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Man Up!

Tue 19 Sep, 9pm

Alexandra Sinclair & Camilla Harding

A feminist drag theatre show exploring gender and identity that asks you to question just how and why guys and gals are put, painted and paired together.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Workshop: Gender positivity and inclusion

Thu 21 Sep, 10am-1pm

Milk Presents

Led my Milk Presents' Artistic Director LJ Skilbeck (The Bear/Proposal Young Vic, Associate Artist The Bush and Derby Theatre) in collaboration with two other leading practitioners in the field.

This workshop is an introduction to positive gender inclusivity within arts organisations. We will discuss best practice, and provide a space for relaxed and open discussion. The outcome of this workshop will be to build a tangible toolkit for venues and organisations to use when actioning gender inclusivity.

£20

Non-Binary Electro Hour

Thu 21 Sep, 9pm

Ray Filar

A tale of gender fluidity and desire told in electro-punk form. Expect songs, sci-fi, strip-tease and spoken word. This show brings together noise about queer life with a brief punk history of drag outside the boxes - from male impersonators of the music hall era to the gender-bending icons of today. A gender-f*cked take on what it's like to live in-between categories.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Shorty

Fri 22 Sep, 9pm

Hester Chillingworth

A deconstructed drag-child of indeterminate gender, who frays at the edges and plays at the edges.

Neither here nor there, neither this nor that, Shorty brings a spare change of clothes to most places, and usually has to use them. A show about the importance of grey areas by one-third of the hit performance collective Getinthebackofthevan.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Towards a gender free future?

Sat 23 Sep, 6pm

Panel discussion

'The words male and female describe who we used to be', says the creator of TV hit Transparent, Jill Soloway. Are they right? And if so, then who are we becoming?

Our understanding of gender is evolving at sometimes dizzying pace. Join CPT and our panel of experts to discuss where it's all leading - for ourselves, for the world - and what possibilities might be enabled along the way.

Suggested £3 donation

Journey from Man to Woman

Sat 23 Sep, 9pm

Mamoru Iriguchi

An interactive cabaret lecture that explores fluidity of sexual and gender identities in nature, including human society. Equipped with his signature DIY video kit, Mamoru undertakes a series of short performances and mini-lectures around how you queer yourself.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Masculine Expressions of my Creative Prowess

Tue 26 Sep, 7.15pm

Pablo Pakula

Man. Manly. Masculine. Masculine manly man.

We've had to put up with it all, from boys don't cry to grow some balls. Enough! What hides beneath the monolithic notion of 'masculinity'? What is it (or should feel like) to be a man? Pablo is still trying to figure it out.

£12 / 10 (conc)

If Britney Could Get Through 2007 We Can Get Through This

Tue 26 Sep, 9pm

Jo Hauge

A show is about how Jo and Britney shaved their heads within a week of each other in 2007. It's a loud, messy Britney tribute act complete with a riot grrrl band, and a love letter to the scared, angry baby queer they used to be.

£12 / 10 (conc)

Currently Untitled

Thu 28 Sep, 9pm

Ellie Stamp

A very early scratch of a new interactive performance, Currently Untitled is an exploration into the gendered codes of emotional and physical strength and vulnerability. An early experiment with performance, live music and video creating a new collaborative form - an audio-visual live score.

£5

Oi, cissy!

Fri 29 Sep, 9pm

Whatsthat Performance!

A collage of performed self-portraits, devised and presented by a cast of trans and non-binary performers. Sometimes humorous, deeply touching and always personal, Oi, cissy! is a visceral and body-driven exploration of the day-to-day experience of being trans or non-binary.

£12 / 10 (conc)

As We Like It

Sat 30 Sep, 9pm

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