Curiouser and curiouser to showcase diverse talent
Performances for the Curious is back at the Wales Millennium Centre with a mix of shows to celebrate individuality, promote diversity and showcase Welsh talent alongside the best international performers. We take a look at some highlights
UNLEASH your curiosity during the Curious season by choosing from more than 25 performances which span comedy, music, drag, theatre, cabaret, storytelling and burlesque.
From family-friendly shows to hardhitting adult drama, Performances for the Curious are running from October 24 to December 31 across the centre’s 250-seat Weston Studio theatre and its lively cabaret bar, ffresh.
Here are our top 14 shows, in date order, from the season to feed your curiosity…
1. TUCK
■■October 24 – November 3 ■■ffresh
■■16+ £15 9pm
Set in the heart of Cardiff’s drag scene, this new bilingual play blends comedy, sequins and sorrow. TUCK follows the story of Patsy Thatcher (played by Stifyn Parri), and that of Patrick – the performer beneath the make-up – and their struggles with mental health. Although a work of fiction, writer Alun Saunders (aka Connie Orff – bilingual drag artist and host of Pride Cyrmu 2018’s main stage) was inspired by performer Lady Ding, who died from suicide in 2003.
2. The Last Five Years
■■November 9 – 17 ■■Weston Studio ■■12+ £12 8pm
Jason Robert Brown’s international hit musical premieres in Wales with a new production featuring integrated British Sign Language. The musical, which has also been made into a film starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, follows a New York couple’s relationship breakdown over five years from their two personal perspectives. This new stage version from Leeway Productions, performed by two West End performers and two deaf dancers, will be accessible to D/deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audience members, with closed captioning and integrated sign language.
3. Leroy Brito: 3 Dads
■■November 16 & 17 ■■ffresh
■■16+ £15 9pm
Following a sold-out performance of Butetown’s Finest in 2017, Leroy returns to Wales Millennium Centre with this new show. 3 Dads is a personal look at Leroy’s experience of fatherhood, as he recalls his experience of the three different men – aged 18, 24 and 34 – that he was when his children were born. This is a heartfelt tale, looking at the universal challenges and differences of being a dad through the eyes of three different versions of himself.
4. Bullish
■■November 20 – 24 ■■Weston Studio
■■12+ £12 Various start times
From the makers of smash-hit Joan (Off West End, Fringe First and Stage Award winners), protest theatre company Milk Presents bring their new play Bullish to Cardiff. The boundarypushing company are known internationally for shifting perceptions of gender and identity, and creating a space for exchange, entertainment and community. Bullish negotiates ancient and new territories in trans-masculine gender and identity, following Asterion, the blood-thirsty minotaur of ancient Crete, through a cabaret odyssey in search for the man they might want to be…
5. Humanequin
■■November 20 – 24 ■■Weston Studio
■■12+ £12 Various start times
Presented by Carmarthenshire’s Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company and Youth Cymru, Humanequin is a play about gender, identity and finding your family in the unlikeliest of places. With director Jain Boon and writer Kelly Jones, three transgender actors have worked alongside members of TransForm Cymru and students from Radyr Comprehensive School. Through sharing common and individual stories and experiences, they’ve collectively created a performance which educates, challenges and provokes conversation about what it means to be trans in 2018.
6. Fraser & the Alibis
■■November 22 ■■ffresh ■■16+ £15 9pm
This London four-piece play the hippest in bop, blues and boogaloo, combining the feel-good effect of the dance hall era with the intricacies of later jazz movements. Music aficionados might also enjoy Clifford Brown / Max Roach Revisited (November 8), an evening of the bop quintet’s work of the 1950s reimagined by some of Cardiff’s finest musicians, including Dave Jones on piano. And jazz vocalist Atila performs some all-time classics with King for a Day: The Nat King Cole Story on December 7.
7. Rachel Williams Live!
■■November 24 ■■ffresh
■■£15 9pm
Welsh showgirl Rachel Williams returns with her dazzling sell-out, onewoman show, taking a kaleidoscopic journey through spellbinding song and dance performances, magical insights and comedic anecdotes – a principal dancer’s life lived in the spotlight at Paris’ Moulin Rouge, on London’s West End Stage and in Hollywood, USA.
Accompanied by her pianist, she has put her unique mark on an eclectic mix of familiar and lesser-known musical numbers; from 1920s jazz to heart-wrenching French ballads, hilarious musical comedy to fullblown golden-era Hollywood classics.
8. This is Not a Safe Space
■■December 1 ■■Weston Studio ■■14+ £12 8pm
Writer, comedian and self-proclaimed underclass amputee Jackie Hagan performs her new Saboteur Award-winning solo show about life on disability benefits. Featuring a unique blend of DIY puppetry, poetic comedy, a massive game of metaphorical “Kerplunk” and the real voices of 43 proper skint disabled people that Jackie interviewed – This is Not a Safe Space asks how we can get people to sit up, listen and not keel over with empathy-fatigue.
9. Ffresh Burlesque
■■December 1 ■■ffresh ■■16+ £15 9pm
Start the festive season in style with a night of burlesque and comedy from Cardiff Cabaret Club. Hosted by forceof-nature burlesque artist Havana Hurricane and queen of cabaret MC Paulus (BBC’s All Together Now), the evening will feature performances from Foo Foo Labelle, Bonita Boudoir and phenomenal hula-hoop artist Frenchie Petit. If you can’t get enough cabaret in your life, you could also squeeze in Hello Cabaret (November 23) or Mary Bijou’s annual Christmas extravaganza (December 14).
10. Hansel, Gedeon and the Grimms’ Wood
■■December 6-8 ■■Weston studio ■■£9 (£6 for under 16s) Various times
Forbidden by their parents from stepping foot in the woods, Hansel and Gedeon had only ever heard of the dangers which lay within it.
But one day, armed with only each other, they decide to venture into the woods to see for themselves.
This production is from Cardiffbased Hijinx’s community group Odyssey.
11. Cabarela Nadolig
■■December 13 ■■ffresh ■■16+ £15 9pm
Cabarela – the Welsh language cabaret night – brought their fabulous show to Wales Millennium Centre for the first time this spring and they’re back in December with a special Christmas line-up. Welsh speakers could make a real festive weekend of it with bilingual Drag Queen and Pride Cymru 2018 host Connie Orff offering her mulled reflections on the season with Christmas is Orff, also in ffresh on December 15. Take the stress out of the stress-tive season!
12. Behind the Label
■■December 13 & 14 ■■Weston Studio ■■16+ £12 8pm
Created over an 18-week theatre skills programme by people who have experienced misfortune – whether addiction, trauma, homelessness or mental health problems – this gritty applied theatre production shares the real-life stories from society’s invisible people. They’re ready to strip back the labels that society has given them and share their personal journeys full of twists and turns, dead ends and new directions. A Theatre versus Oppression project created in partnership with Wales Millennium Centre and The Wallich.
13. Le Gateau Chocolat: Icons
■■December 18 – 22 ■■Weston Studio ■■14+ £12 8pm
Walking the tightrope between his public and private personas, opera and cabaret sensation Le Gateau Chocolat explores the people, the moments, the relationships and the art that have come to shape us and the ideals we aspire to. Accompanied by a live band, Gateau weaves through an eclectic mix of music, investigating his own objects of worship through the songs and music of his personal icons including Kate Bush, Whitney, Meatloaf and Pavarotti.
14. Le Gateau Chocolat: Duckie
■■December 20 – 31 ■■Weston Studio
■■3+ £10 Various start times
Family-friendly glamour and glitz take centre stage as Le Gateau Chocolat breaks out of his shell with his first work for children and his second show at Wales Millennium Centre as part of the Performances for the Curious season. Duckie is a reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling – a classic tale of identity and belonging with a message of tolerance and self-acceptance at its core.
For more information on the Performances for the Curious autumn season, visit wmc.org.uk/curious or call 029 2063 6464