Glasgay!

Glasgay! theatre round-up, including Harold and Maude, All That Promise and Dustin Lance Black's 8

Already recognised as a festival not afraid of dealing with issues of sexuality in a challenging and unconventional manner, this year’s Glasgay! comes with its own political backdrop – the ongoing debate between the Scottish government and the Catholic…

Artbeat - Andrew Houston

Q&A with the artist and curator of a group exhibition exploring sexual identities as part of Glasgay

What was the first exhibition you went to see? The first exhibition I went to see, or at least can clearly remember was the permanent collection of Lucien Freud paintings at Chatsworth house in Cheshire when I was 13. At this point I was still very…

Call Me Kuchu

Insightful documentary about the struggle for gay rights in Uganda

Call Me Kuchu is an even-handed documentary tackling the topic of gay rights in Africa. Taking its title from a slang word used with pride to describe the country’s LGBT community, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worral’s film explores…

Top five events at Glasgay! 2012

Featuring Harold and Maude, John Grant, 8 and Tranny and Roseannah

Harold and Maude Glasgay’s main 2012 commission, in collaboration with Theatre Jezebel. This is the UK premiere of Colin Higgins’ stage adaptation of the 1971 cult film looking at the unlikely friendship between a spoiled rich kid with melancholy on…

Glasgay! artists and performers discuss the concept of union

This year's festival considers the notion of union in the wake of the Equal Marriage campaign

John Grant ‘I have a humorous take on equal marriage, which is just a copycat of what Dolly Parton said on it. She said, ‘Hell yeah, I think gays ought to be allowed to marry -- they should be as miserable as the rest of us’. And I like that. I grew…

The best upcoming events in Scotland for 2012 and 2013

Featuring Alien Wars, Frankie Boyle, Anna Karenina and Edinburgh's Hogmanay

Alien Wars When virtual terror experience Alien Wars opened in London, the then prime minister Tony Blair allegedly showed up, desperate for the chance to be frightened out of his wits by a man in a scary latex costume. He reportedly left the…

A guide to the Edinburgh and Glasgow LGBT scene

Clubs, bars, films, visual art, sports events and festivals all covered

Glasgow Not short of club nights, Glasgow has a reasonable mix of the mainstream and the leftfield. Play and Polo Lounge offer reasonably priced midweek nights, while FHQ in Merchant City is a ladies-only bar with affordable, regular nights including…

Interview: Lorraine Bowen celebrates material world in Polyester Fiesta!

Fabric-loving funny woman and pal of Billy Bragg hits Glasgay!

You may not be aware but this year is the 70th anniversary of polyester. Yup, that’s right- the fabric responsible for some of the strangest, best and undeniably worst looks of the past half-decade is in its twilight years and musician/comedienne…

Grant Smeaton on Martin O'Connor's Ch Ch Changes at part of Glasgay! 2011

The writer and actor on his upcoming one-man show

What drew you to Martin O’Connor’s script for Ch Ch Changes? I’ve been thinking about doing a one-man show for a long time. Never done one before. The nearest was the solo performance I did in Spend a Penny at the Arches a few years ago where my…

Interview: Jonny Woo

Acclaimed performance artist and cabaret queen set for show at Glasgay!

Anyone who’s seen Party Monster should know that the Club Kids of New York are a force to be reckoned with- and Jonny Woo is no exception. Host/compere, DJ, anthemic cabaret queen – Woo does it all, best known for legendary club night Gay Bingo and…

Interview - Amy Lamé’s Unhappy Birthday

Morrissey at your birthday party? Glasgay! performer Amy Lamé wants to make it happen

Steven Patrick Morrissey. Icon. Owner of the best baritone in the biz. Vegetarian, animal rights activist and moulder of the most vertigo-inducing quiff since Johnny Bravo? Yes, yes, yes. But warm, approachable, fan-embracing performer who would jump…

Strange Hungers

Glasgow Theatre company Fish and Game's wry send up of gay icons past at Glasgay!

Who were the gay icons of your youth? Wham? George Takei? Rosie O’Donnell... ? Everyone has at least one (perhaps strange) LGBT celeb that they looked up to as an alternative youngster – and what do you get if you combine this wry look at ‘back in…

Liz Lochhead discusses her new play, Edwin Morgan's Dreams – and Other Nightmares

The new production will premiere at this year's Glasgay! festival

It’s a sprightly Liz Lochhead who comes into Edinburgh’s Urban Angel for a breakfast coffee – latte with an extra shot – in the midst of a typically whirlwind calendar of deadlines, poetry readings and confabs with theatre directors. This summer she had…

Interview: Alt-cabaret act Bourgeois and Maurice

Outlandishly glam neo-cabarat act bring their dark glamour to Glasgay!

Georgeois Bourgeois and Maurice Maurice (real names George Heyworth and Liv Morris) are a sight to behold on a stage. Glitter, shoulder pads, metallics, smeared lipstick, towering beehives and as much eyeliner as you could ever loot from Superdrug, the…

Glasgay!: Re-Invention

Exhibition and workshop aimed at gay and trans comic fans

The idea of gay culture in comics is nothing new, with handfuls of uptight academics frantically pointing out the homoerotic sub-tones of Batman and Robin’s cartoon exploits since the 1950s. The foundations of X-Men arguably lie in the civil rights…

Timeline - Summer music festivals 2011 from Scotland and beyond

A chronological list of the best festivals in Scotland and beyond

A chronological list of the most significant festivals happening in Scotland this summer, along with the biggest and best from the rest of the UK and beyond.

The best upcoming events in Scotland in 2011

Highlights of the 2011 cultural calandar from Film, Music, Comedy, Theatre and Visual Art

Huge gigs, inspiring theatre productions, comedy legends and two cute little waving bears – just a few of the things coming up in ‘11 that we can barely contain our excitement about

Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh collaborate on Panic Patterns at Glasgay! 2010

First collaboration from writing pair

Award-winning writers Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh live together and are in a long-term relationship, but until recently they’d never collaborated. Glasgay! director Steven Thomson asked if they’d be prepared to change that by co-penning a play for…

Pink Flamingos and Prayers for Bobby among of Glasgay! 2010 film highlights

Stonewall Uprising, Assume Nothing and Orlando also screening

The Stonewall riots of summer 1969 have been the subject of a feature film and numerous documentaries, but the new historical documentary, Stonewall Uprising, gives more information than any other film to date, telling the birth of Gay Liberation…

Derek McLuckie and Pauline Goldsmith bring Jean Genet’s The Maids to stage

All-male version of controversial play set for Glasgay!

‘It’s about play acting and status games,’ says Derek McLuckie of Jean Genet’s The Maids, an all-male version of which the Glaswegian actor will star in and co-direct at this year’s Glasgay! ‘It’s about how you’re never one person, you’re lots of…

Wendy Miller and Rachel Amey collaborate on The Bridge at Glasgay! 2010

New play explores theme of teenage suicide

The creative partnership behind one of the chief commissions at this year’s Glasgay! 2010 is one that the festival was itself instrumental in fostering. Wendy Miller met Rachel Amey last year, after Amey was cast in Miller’s Glasgay! 2009 drama Even…

Glasgay! 2010 highlights

Glasgow festival celebrates LGBT relationships

Panic Patterns Award winning Glasgow-based authors Zoé Strachan and Louise Welsh have collaborated on a gripping thriller in which two lovers witness sudden changes in bird migration patterns that herald impending disaster. The suspenseful exploration…

2010 preview: Great expectations

Favourite things are ending, exciting things are beginning and old things are coming back. 2010 is already shaping up to be a thrilling year and here are the 30 good reasons why we can’t wait

Hitlist: Theatre

Get your fill of the stage

The Dark Things, Glasgay, Confessions of a Justifed Sinner, Topdog / Underdog, Othello, Bounce: Insane in the Brain, Bright Black, Kes, The House of Bernarda Alba, We Will Rock You

Hitlist: Theatre

What to see this fortnight

The Grapes of Wrath, Glasgay!, That Face, Curve Foundation, Scottish Ballet, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Othello