Breaking News: The play, Queer Ceili at the Marty Forsyth (dedicated to the life & legacy of Dan Chesters 1973-2018), and the subject of rave press reviews at its premiere is coming to Manchester for Manchester Pride (end of August) together with the Queering the North Exhibition. The play portrays events around one tumultuous weekend in 1983 when Belfast University Student Union hosted the first Lesbian and Gay Conference in Ireland attendance included over 50 Manchester students. The intimidating, extraordinary, and humorous events of that weekend contrast the mass protest by Rev. Paisley Save Ulster from Sodomy Campaigners and an unexpected invitation from the fiercely nationalist community of Turf Lodge, West Belfast. [Irish Times Review – A Queer Céilí at the Marty Forsythe review]
The Queering the North Exhibition (that Dan also helped commission) provides the first retrospective reading of the
largely unknown but nonetheless courageous campaigning of LGBT+ activists during and after the ‘Troubles’. This remarkable insight offers the wider community along with the younger LGBT+ generation a rare insight into that remarkable and heartening story of Human/LGBT+ Rights campaigning in often highly confrontational and deadly environments. The Exhibition is dedicated to the life and legacy of the Belfast born USA based LGBT+/Human Rights activist Tarlach Mac Niallais (1963-2020) whose enthusiasm for an archival contribution to this project was seminal.
Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square is showcasing both as part of Manchester Pride celebrations: The Exhibition from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th August 2021. The Play “Queer Ceili…’ will be performed on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th August in the ‘posh’ Performance Space of the Library. The tickets for the play will go on sale via the internet shortly.
Links:
- A Queer Céilí at the Marty Forsythe review: A heartfelt, well-researched play
- Manchester Pride
- Kabosh – A Queer Ceili at the Marty Forsythe
- Tommy at Greenwich Theatre
