Sticks of rock at the ready, get ready to see Blackpool burn bright on stage this November!
I’m so excited to be sharing my brand new show, Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular at Northern Stage, presented in partnership with Curious Arts, on Thursday 6th November. It means a lot to be bringing this show over to Newcastle as the first location it is ever being performed as I have such a personal connection to the amazing city and its brilliant artistic community.
Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular is an “end of the pier show at the end of the world” which I first conceptualised at the beginning of 2020 (and we all know what happened next). Blackpool Council had declared a climate emergency in 2019 and I was having dystopian visions of performing on a show on a pier that was collapsing. Then in 2023 and 2024 I was performing on a cruise ship which was sailing around the Greek Islands while they were on fire – which was pure dissonance but continued that idea of giving tits and teeth while the world around us burns. Five years after my initial idea, the world has changed very much and given geopolitical contexts, the “end of the world” feels far more current and urgent and in the room with us. We’re using that concept as impetus, as well as the entertainment history of Blackpool and our personal stories to explore local and national issues. We’ve created a multi-genre piece through a contemporary cabaret infused lens in lurid technicolour and garish spectacle… magic, dance, drag, variety, sideshow, you’ll have to see it to believe it!
I’m delighted to be creating this show in collaboration with three artists who are either from or have been nourished by our iconic seaside town, the salty air and coastal glamour. Oliver Gregory, aka Miss Titty Kaka, an international showgirl sensation who began their performance career at Blackpool drag institution Funny Girls at just 18. As well as Aysh De Belle and Sam De Belle, a married dancing duo whose dazzling work has been seen on both stage and screen.
It’s taken a lot of work to get this place – producing theatre has never been more challenging – and actually, some of the arts scene in Newcastle knows all about the work I’ve been doing in putting Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular together… I’ve been lucky to have a relationship with Newcastle since 2019 when we brought over my debut autobiographical theatre show Sex Education and since then have been working with Curious Arts on their artist development programmes, mentoring and delivering or facilitating workshops (one of those at Northern Stage). I’ve been sharing my research and development and process along the way, but now we’re in the exciting position to be able to bring the actual finished piece of work across and I couldn’t be more excited. You really get to say that you saw it here first before we take it on tour to the Southbank Centre in London as part of their new festival KUNSTY and Unity Theatre in Liverpool as part of Homotopia.
So, arms and legs inside the theatrical carriage for our rollercoaster of a high kicking cabaret variety show!
