10/22/2014 Glasgay' s birthday beauties | Evening Times

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Glasgay's birthday beauties
FOR one night only the legendary film director John Waters will make an
appearance in Glasgow.
Telling stories about his childhood and early influences as well as
Hollywood highs and lows, the face behind Hairspray, Cry-Baby and
Pink Flamingos will also divulge his fascination with crime,
exploitation films, fashion lunacy, Catholicism and how to become
famous.
The night at the O2 Academy is set to be the highlight of this year's
Glasgay! festival, which also happens to be celebrating its 21st
birthday.
"To get a Hollywood legend who is well known for Hairspray and
discovering artists such as Divine as well as Ricki Lake - who is now
obviously much slimmer and much more famous - John Waters is the gig everyone wants to
get in the festival," enthuses Glasgay! producer Steven Thomson.
"Some people have said to me, is this the John Waters who did Hairspray with John
Travolta? I have to explain, 'No, he did it originally with Ricki Lake and Divine'. The younger
audience don't even remember the original.
"Waters in the early days was famous for trashy movies that were quite cult and
underground. One of his movies we're also showing is Cry-Baby with Johnny Depp which is a
fascinating take on the teen exploitation movies of the 1950s.
"It is made in the 1980s and so you're seeing Johnny Depp as a young teen rebel with this
weird kooky crew and it's a real send up of straight society."
The themes of this year's Glasgay! are coming of age and taboos. When you look at equality
and the way LGBT stories have moved out into the mainstream, that coming of age story is
relevant politically as well as socially, according to Steven.
The main festival commission is Cardinal Sinne by Raymond Burke, directed by Grant
Smeaton, a theatre production at the Tron that focuses on a fictional long-running sexual
abuse scandal in the Catholic church. It is certainly expected to raise eyebrows.
"Cardinal Sinne is probably the most topical
project this year - topical rather then
controversial," says Steven. "It is not the
Cardinal O'Brien story, more a Father Ted
meets Joe Orton farce where it looks at the
story of a Scottish cardinal flying to Rome to
be elected Pope.
"On the night he flies to Rome there's a
sudden revelation of his past sex life. You can
imagine a Scottish Mrs Doyle who loses the
plot and confronts him with his sins and a few
young priests turn up at his door saying,
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'Remember me?'
"If anyone asks if these stories are controversial and we shouldn't be doing them, we often
say, 'They're all out there in the mainstream now, there are no secrets so let's have a bit of
fun with it'. It's a farce rather than representing anyone's real life."
The themes for this year's Glasgay! began to emerge as the programme was put together,
looking at taboos across history and time. This includes sexual, religious and historic taboos.
Steven cites Stewart Laing's production of Slope at the Citizens, a story of French poets
Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine from the 1870s who ran away to London, fell in love and
had a notorious love affair: the historical taboo of two men in love and living together was
against the Victorian ethos of the time.
"There is a similar story with Colquhoun & MacBryde, the John Byrne play being staged at
the Tron which looks at two Scottish painters from the 1940s, who again ran away to London
and fell in love," adds Steven.
"You could almost describe them as a Scottish Withnail & I: they lived on the kindness of
strangers, grifted around parties and friends trying to sell their wares and their art. Ultimately
they drank themselves to death. They had a tempestuous love affair and drink got the better
of them."
Other taboos include performance artist Ron Athey from the US. He completes the arc of a
work Messianic Remains that began its journey in Glasgow in 1996.
"It is very much endurance performance and it is quite a taboo underground community that
supports this kind of work," explains Steven.
The taboo of coming out is explored in There Were Two Brothers, a play by Mark Kydd in the
Brian Cox Studio at the Old Sheriff Court.
Part confessional monologue, part lecture and part storytelling, it tells the story of two
brothers is a funny, personal exploration of fraternal relationships. Inspired by gay brothers,
both real and fictional, this new show from performer Mark Kydd takes the audience on an
unexpected journey through his experiences with his brother.
"There are explorations of taboos - what was once taboo and is no longer," says Steven.
"The challenge for an LGBT community is it should really be understood in all of its colours
and its nuances."
Familiar faces on the bill this year also include Craig Hill and Stephen K Amos as well as
Sara Pascoe and Vikki Stone.
The 21st birthday of Glasgay! marks its coming of age and growing up. In the past 10 years
alone, audiences have grown from 3000 to up to 35,000 people and the festival has a
turnover of 250,000. People come from all over the UK to see a programme that focuses on
Scottish talent.
"We have built an economy around ourselves and a support network and that is really
important," says Steven. "We are lean, green and mean and want to keep going."
Visit www.glasgay.co.uk.
Janice Bell
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