Theatre / LGBTQ+
London drag king star Bi-Curious George presents show celebrating Queer ecology
Bi-Curious George is an award-winning London drag king, and founder member of the drag king collective, Gaggle, who makes work around queer ecology.
Using a performance style rich in “silliness, joy and camp tomfoolery”, he has taken shows around the UK and Europe, aiming to “shatter the heteronormative lens through which we view the natural world”.
Making its debut at VAULT Festival 2023, his hour-long show Queer Planet is both a parody and a celebration of UK nature documentaries, harnessing comedy, drag and songs to tell stories of queer behaviour from the animal world: “from dolphin orgies to hermaphroditic snails; from transgender fish to gay giraffes”.
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The show has been critically acclaimed and was nominated for an Origins Award. George is now touring Queer Planet around the UK, culminating with three nights at The Wardrobe Theatre.
“Connecting to the animal in me (my whole being really…) has been a joyful, freeing experience,” he reflects.
“When I learnt about clown fish changing biological sex; about male cuttlefish releasing female hormones; about the thousands of biological sexes of fungi; about female Japanese macaques having intensely intimate sexual bonds with one another; about bisexual bonobos – I felt liberated in my own queerness.
“The word ‘unnatural’ has been weaponised against us for centuries but nature is undefinable, queer and fluid. It defies binaries and breaks rules which didn’t even exist until we humans wrote them. There is nothing more natural to me now than my queerness.
“So, Queer Planet is my love letter to nature and to the queer community.
“It is a rallying call for people to change the way they see the natural world and to reframe how we think about our own identities.”
Queer Planet (age recommendation 18+) is at The Wardrobe Theatre on March 20-22 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow Bi-Curious George @bi.curious.george_drag.
All photos: James Klugg (poster design: Molly Dunne)
Read more: Bristol drag clown Riss Obolensky brings ‘Healing King Herod’ to the Edinburgh Fringe
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