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Enjoy a Happy, Safe and Respectful Brighton and Hove Pride

PREVIEW: Tricyclic Transform – A Genderqueer Musical Cabaret

Join Miss Liliane, Queen of Camp Noir, and Sebastian Marmite, the bedsit aesthete, round the gender wheel as they try to negotiate restrictive gender-roles by performing symbolic rituals and re-enacting iconic songs, trying on gender identities as they try on clothes and pitches.

From heart-wrenching jazz diva standards to the pissed-off ladies of gritty blues and Brecht, from the broken men protest songs of Johnny Cash, Scott Walker and Jacques Brel, to the gender-fuck anthems of Marc Almond and Boy George, with sprinkles of Victor Victoria and La Cage aux Folles, Tricyclic Transform mixes popular alt-drag cabaret, dark cabaret singing and live-art aesthetics to unearth ‘gender archetypes’ hidden in popular songs. Judith Butler takes on RuRaul Drag Race!

Supported by Brighton Pride Cultural Development Fund. £1 per ticket donated to the Rainbow Fund.


Event: Tricyclic Transform – A Genderqueer Musical Cabaret – Solo musical cabaret exploring genderqueer identity with songs and drag – devised and performed by Melanie Menard

Where: Rialto Theatre, 11 Dyke Rd, Brighton BN1 3FE

When: Sunday, August 5

Time: 8pm

Cost: £10

To book tickets online, click here:

LETTER TO EDITOR: Pride is not perfect, but it is the best we have

The Rainbow Chorus is getting very excited about Brighton Pride 2018 and our beautiful artistic blue float – which you can see on Saturday on the parade.

WHETHER people go into the park with the reduced price community or access tickets provided by Pride or choose to celebrate elsewhere (or even not at all) we hope you have a great weekend.

Although Pride has become more professional and doesn’t have the local community feel it used to have it is still a very important date in our LGBT+ calendar and the Rainbow Chorus are once again proud to be taking part.

It is worth remembering that Pride and the activities in Preston Park each year provide the main source of funding in Brighton and Hove for many local LGBT+/HIV groups. £1 from every ticket sold for Brighton Pride and a growing  proportion of fundraising by the Pride sponsors goes directly to the Rainbow Fund to be distributed locally and without it any number of local LGBT+ groups and organisations would be unable to provide support, outreach and safe spaces for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. In fact many services would disappear.

The Rainbow Chorus directly benefits from Pride as a grant from the Rainbow Fund supports key outreach activities, including RC+, and we could not sustain this branch of our work without this funding.

Pride is sadly no longer free because when it was free people didn’t put enough money in the buckets to keep it free and local business and charities were left in dire straits with unpaid bills and unfulfilled expectations.

In recent years Pride has followed a clear business model to ensure its financial stability while also recognising and supporting LGBT+/HIV needs in the community.

This balance is much harder to achieve than most of us realise and we take our hats off to Pride organisers, Dulcie Weaver and Paul Kemp.

A lot of local businesses make profit out of Pride and the considerable income it brings to the City and many fly the Rainbow flag for these couple of weeks to draw in the ‘pink pound’ but very few – with notable exceptions such as Legends – sponsor Pride events or the Rainbow Fund. As a community we need to show our support for those businesses who put their money where their flag is.

Pride is a celebration – that doesn’t mean it’s not a political statement – we must always remember our roots and our histories.

Our LGBT+ visibility and presence has always been essential and a massive statement that can’t be underestimated – ask anyone in one of the 72 countries where being LGBT+ is still illegal and can get you thrown in prison or worse.

So, thank you Pride, thank you Rainbow Fund and thank all of you for reading this and looking at the wider picture.

Happy Pride from the Rainbow Chorus

Bev Morgan and Finola Brophy
Chair and Trustee, Rainbow Chorus

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