RIOT ACT Will Stream Online Next Month

Alexis Gregory's critically acclaimed production Riot Act returns in 2022 to celebrate LGBT History Month. Direct from the West End and touring the UK, this online 'reimagining' has been created using interviews with a Stonewall survivor, a radical drag artist, and an AIDS activist. This audience favourite solo show is filmed at the Hackney Empire and will be available to watch throughout February.

The production is formed word-for-word from playwright and performer Gregory's interviews with three key players in the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement: Michael-Anthony Nozzi, a survivor of the Stonewall riots; Lavinia Co-op, an alternative '70s drag artist; and Paul Burston, a '90s AIDS activist. Gregory's verbatim solo show Riot Act is a breath-taking, hard-hitting, yet hilarious wild white-knuckle ride through six decades of queer history, directed by Stonewall (1995) writer Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE, taking the viewer right up to the present day.

Following a gala West End performance at the Duchess Theatre, runs at the Arcola Theatre and King's Head Theatre and three tours, Riot Act will be available to stream globally via stream.theatre to mark LGBT History Month 2022. This beautiful online version is filmed at the iconic Hackney Empire, blending the mediums of theatre and film. A celebration of queer activism across the decades; pulling no punches, hilarious, moving and inspiring... It's a riot.

This online production is created in partnership with and commissioned by Hackney Empire; their first-ever digital commission in their 120th birthday year, and is funded by Arts Council England.

Riot Act online is the latest offering from performer, playwright, producer and director Alexis Gregory, following the sell-out run of his Sex/Crime (Soho Theatre); Safe, online version, also in association with Hackney Empire; directing Guardian top online pick Declan, written and performed by Alistair Hall (The Actors Centre); and directing Jonny Woo's series of online monologues for his Silvertown project.

Acclaimed theatre legend Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE returns to direct Riot Act. Beadle-Blair has written and directed over forty plays, and his screen work, as writer or director, includes the ground-breaking Channel 4 series Metrosexuality (2001) and the feature films Stonewall (1995) and Blackbird (2015).

Alexis Gregory, Creator and Performer, comments, It has been an honour to perform these three extraordinary, hidden, queer stories, all over the UK since Riot Act's premiere in 2018. Since 2018, there has also been talk of filming Riot Act, and so, finally, to mark LGBT History Month 2022, here is that special filmed version of the show. With the pandemic redefining what online theatre can be, this digital reimagining of the show for the screen sits somewhere between theatre and film. Streamed globally via stream.theatre, partnered with and filmed in the stunning Hackney Empire, funded by Arts Council England, and once again directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair, with an amazing creative team attached, now, wherever in the world you are, Riot Act is available to you, and everyone can 'meet' Michael, Lavinia and Paul, who so generously and bravely shared their stories with me.

The production will stream Tuesday 1st - Monday 28th February 2022.

Tickets are £15. A series of discount codes on a 'Pay What You Can Basis' will also be shared with nationwide LGBTQ+ organisations and platforms to aid accessibility. Available to watch via stream.theatre on demand.

Purchase tickets at https://www.stream.theatre/season/224.

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