FUTUREQUEER ⚝⚝⚝ Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel
The entire world is queer. No, it’s not Compton Street on a Friday night. It’s 2069 and Alexis Gregory is imagining a queer future, through the scattered shards of light from a disco ball, at the Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel. The light is not always precisely focused but it is penetrating.
Talking about the future is another way of talking about the past and the present. About the fears, challenges, and possibilities that are encountered now, where they came from, and where they might lead us. Futurequeer is Gregory’s take on queer history and culture.
A big theme is migration. Queers being born into a situation where they do not fit and through their determination and willpower taking themselves somewhere new. This is driven both by ideas of a queer utopia of sexual freedom, personal expression, and community and by the reality of repression, normative expectations, and rejection. Gregory uses the song Go West, by the Village People, as a repeated metaphor. In its original 1970s incarnation, it mythologized the utopia of heading west to the freedom of San Francisco from the myopia of the square states. In the pre-meds AIDS crisis of the 1990s, it was reimagined as an anthem of hope by the Pet Shop Boys.
Presented in the chamber of the old town hall there is little opportunity for theatrical tools. Minimal lighting changes, no sets, and, considering the disco theme, remarkably little music, Gregory instead switches between modes of telling. Sometimes it’s first-person narrative, then academic lecture, then characterization (who doesn’t want to live in the future as their eternally young drag queen avatar), and occasionally just a good old bit of acting out. Gregory is convincingly adept at personifying an addled party boy slipping into a K-hole when the story requires it. We can only imagine the dedicated hours of research from this teetotal scion of healthy living.
Futurequeer is not quite a show, not quite a lecture, not quite sci-fi, and not quite history. Hard to categorize but easy to find compelling it’s a documented response to the current backlash against the hard-fought wins of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s political, resolute, wide-ranging and thoughtful.
Queerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA and cultural STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day”
P.S. You may also want to check out Alexis Gregory’s recent interview with Queerguru https://queerguru.com/performence-artist-and-queer-theatre-maker-alexis-gregory-talks-with-queerguru-about-his-latest-piece-future-queer/
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Succinct review: It was both compelling & challenging in equal measure