In their 15th anniversary year, Marlborough Productions has programmed an offering of live performance featuring trailblazers from the UK’s queer arts scene including Emma Frankland and Subira Joy. Alongside a dynamic lineup of live work, Marlborough Productions continues to lead the way as makers and producers of queer culture and community with their innovative year-round output which spans heritage, radical gatherings and parties for curious and intersectional audiences.
Launching their 2025 programme during LGBTQ+ History Month, Marlborough Productions offers a vital platform for queer artists and audiences, marking themselves as industry leaders and disruptors with a country-wide reach that puts artists, communities and audiences at the forefront of everything they do.
Co-Creative Directors and Joint CEOs David Sheppeard and Tarik Elmoutawakil, said: “This programme sees Marlborough Productions spring back to life after a long winter. We haven’t exactly been hibernating though! We’ve been working with extraordinary artists and partners across the UK to make this programme happen. From our home in Brighton, to Hastings, Portsmouth and more, the works explore many extraordinary ideas and showcase unique visions, they are bold, bright and totally queer we can’t wait for them to meet an audience.”
In celebration of the company’s 15th anniversary, Marlborough Productions presents 15 Years of Marlborough Productions: A Journey of Queer Creativity and Community, an exhibition charting their journey to success as a pioneering force in LGBTQ+ arts and culture, at Brighton’s Jubilee Library (until March 1, 2025).
From humble beginnings as a pub and theatre to their status as an internationally recognised producer of boundary-pushing queer performance, the exhibition highlights the artists, performances and moments that have defined Marlborough Productions’ legacy. The exhibition is supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.
Making queer joy accessible for all audiences, February brings fun-for-all-the-family show Prancer the Dancer to two special London venues in time for the early spring half term. The Place (February 19) sees Prancer present a joyous piece of dance theatre, journeying through time to celebrate individuality and revolutionise the world…all through the power of dance!
Elsewhere in the city, Prancer the Dancer’s Dance Dance Disco Party Fun Show struts into the Southbank Centre as part of Imagine Festival (February 23) for an even bigger boogie. Be mesmerised by dazzling performances from some of Prancer’s funkiest friends and get your groove on with fun-filled dance routines the whole family can learn and enjoy together in a two-hour dance party extravaganza. Prancer will also return later in spring at Cambridge Junction (May 4), with more dates to be announced. Tickets HERE
New Queers on the Block, Marlborough’s flagship programme of queer micro-festivals in undersung LGBTQ+ hubs across England, returns once more with exciting plans announced for Bradford, Hastings and, for the very first time, Portsmouth.
Castles In The Sky Presents: A Day & Night of Dance with Nikhita Devi & Bollyqueer in Bradford across two days in February and March. Showcasing traditional and contemporary dance takes on South Asian dance styles, Nikhita Devi and Bollyqueer are two of the UK’s most exciting LGBTQ+ dance artists. They bring a spellbinding evening of spectacular solo and group performances (February 28, Mind the Gap Studios), followed by workshops from both artists (March 1, Kala Sangam) in a LGBTQ+ affirming dance space where attendees are encouraged to dance in a way which makes them feel happiest.
For Portsmouth’s inaugural New Queers on the Block offering, local associate producers Downtown Pompey have curated Knees Up! (March 21 & 22, June 21 & 22, Portsmouth New Theatre Royal), a glitzy night of all-out camp with hair and heels higher than the London Palladium. Inspired by legends of Saturday night telly and the very best in UK light entertainment, four unforgettable nights of outrageously sequinned cabaret, hosted by local legends The Fabulous Josh and ‘Queen of Portsmouth’ Cherry Liquor will take the stage.
Finally, Giddy Up! in Hastings boasts a knockout lineup from some of the boldest and best boundary-pushing queer performers from across the UK. Curated by local associate producer Hannah Rose Fox and presented by Home Live Art, the season sees world-class, much-celebrated artists grace the town from April 2025. Full programme to be announced late February.
Supporting artists to create new works, Marlborough Productions continues their work with associate artist Emma Frankland. Directed by critically acclaimed performance artist Harry Clayton-Wright, Frankland is developing a new show, No Apologies – a radical misremembering of Nirvana’s legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged concert. Backed by a live band, Frankland delves head-first into internet discourse and classical mythology to rally against societal expectations of self-image and the dangers of not living as our truest, most vibrant selves. Audiences can catch the show at Attenborough Centre for the Arts, Brighton on April 16. Tickets HERE
Frankland also develops TRAP, through a rehearsed reading of the new play at the Old Courtroom Brighton (March 2). A twisted queer love story cross bungled heist, TRAP uncovers the real monsters lurking within. Tickets HERE
Marlborough Productions also supports several flagship year-round projects, bringing queer identity, community and heritage to the fore. Queer Heritage South continues to expand its archive of queer histories and LGBTQ+ communities in Brighton and beyond, whilst Producer Gathering, the organisers of the UK’s first and only database of live art producers – Producer Directory – grows its connections and looks to arrange more collaborative events up and down the country.
The Coast is Queer, the UK’s biggest and brightest LGBTQ+ literature festival, will return once more this autumn (October 9-12), partnered with New Writing South.
More on Marlborough Productions HERE
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