Bursting with Pride

It has been branded cutting-edge, political and controversial. Certainly, even in its 16th year, Glasgay!, still has the radical energy that has made the festival worth talking about since its advent. Yet 2009 allows the festival to boast of its maturity. Initially attracting audiences from the LGBT community, Glasgay! is now defining itself as an epicenter for fearless social and political discourse reaching a wildly eclectic audience. And this year we’re talking Family and Femininity: ginger liberation, harridan mammies, transsexual deity, and some quintessential gender politics for good measure. A focus on the twin themes of Family and Feminine is typical of Glasgay’s fearless attempt to debunk stereotypes. Hot on the agenda this year is the question of what feminine actually means. Is femininity inner or outer strength? Can a profanity-spitting harlot be feminine? Is an indoctrinated female oppressed by a predatory male the definition of feminine? And will we remain nailed to the medieval damsel in distress scenario? Let’s hope not! The Feminine is a multi-dimensional notion and Steven Thompson and the Glasgay team are ready to give some vanguard depictions of every flavour of the feminine identity, as revealed in the wide range of performance styles and stories in the festival's theatrical programme.

The debate kicks off at the Theatre Royal with Matthew Bourne’s 21st Century androgynous depiction of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray (2-3 Oct) bringing decadent dance to Glasgow. Visually scrumptious, this is a modern Ugly-Betty take on Wilde’s canon. Memory Cells at The Arches (20-24 Oct) is the darkest offering on the programme. Writer Louise Walsh plunges audiences into the misogynistic world of Barry as he preys on a woman locked in a chamber. It's a study of body abstraction "inspired by recent cases of young women being kidnapped and held captive by predatory men,” as Director Sam Rowe explains. The intensity of compressed violence revives the unimaginable horrors of cases such as Elizabeth Fritzel and Natascha Kampush. The question is: how much power does the oppressed have over the oppressor? Provocative stuff to say the very least.

Another female, another crisis, well a mid-life crisis. Maggie Kinloch‘s The Maw Broon Monologues (3-8 Nov) sees Scotland’s most notorious matriarch take to the Tron stage to delve deep into her past. A hilarious and sinister treat, Maw Broon meets Gordon Broon, reads Tolstoy and goes for colonic irrigation – let’s hope some things are left between the lines! On the family tip, Martin O’Connor returns to Glasgay with his first full length play, Playing Houses (13-17 Oct). Set in the gritty cavern of The Arches it displays pure Glasgow humour infused with gender conflict and identity struggles a la Pinter. O’Connor describes the play as an "exploration of those on the fringes of society" – a humorous dabble in social realism but with a modern Big Brother twist. O’Connor is quickly becoming one to watch and Playing Houses is set to be a sure-fire hits of Glasgay 2009.

Ginge, Ginger Nut, Carrot Heed, Fire Balls – sound familiar? Hair I Am (4-5 Nov) forms part of the festival's boutique programme at the CCA. Following on from her show The Hair on my Head is Dead we’ve got to ask: what is it with writer/performer Helen Quinn and her hair? "Well now!" retorts the zealous recipient of the Arts Trust Scotland Funding, "Ah’ve actually got a bee in ma bunnet aboot that!" Quinn doesn’t want public hanging of barnet bigots, but she’s damn sure she’s unearthing the attitudes to red hair on stage. Exploring the roots of anti-ginger, this play ruptures our deep-rooted prejudices, Quinn states: "I see the theme of ginger hair and its treatment in Scotland as a metaphor for how we deal with difference."

And there’s more. Lots more in fact. Bette/Cavett (6-10 Oct) at the Tron is directed by Alan Bennett of Glasgay’s 06/07 hit Talking Heads. At the same venue, A Child Made of Love (20-24 Oct) explores the issue of paternal longing, followed by Jesus Queen of Heaven (3-7 Nov) which asks, what if God were a transsexual woman on a mission to promote sexual egalitarianism? At the King’s Theatre we see Roxy Hart razzle dazzle us in Chicago (5-10 Oct), while over at the Tramway Queen Elizabeth I visits Glasgow in Regina (23-24 Oct), a multi-media dance extravanganza. Glasgay 2009 promises to be a thought-provoking expose of cliché and a meticulous vivisection of social norms. And there’s something for everyone. Weep, laugh and ponder. Let the exploration begin!