UncategorizedHAPPY CHRISTMAS, DUCKIE!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, DUCKIE!

Duckie, the divine disco-cum-performance-cum-veritable Pandora’s box of tits and giggles, returns for a new festive special, Copyright Christmas. We sent Lee Dalloway to chat with Duckie doyenne Simon Gasson to find out more about their yuletide spectacular…

For anyone who’s been living in a cave on Mars for the last two decades, how would you sum up Duckie to a complete newbie?

We are a club night and an arts outfit. We make clubs that are a bit like theatre shows and theatre shows that are a bit like clubs. Some people call it bentertainment!

For the past 16 years we have run our flagship rock’n’roll künst-disco at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern every Saturday, platforming the best unusual and offbeat performance in town. Saturday night was started by the gang of six of us way back in 1995.

Me, hostess Amy Lamé, DJs Readers Wifes and door whores The Cloths – and we are all still together after sixteen years! In the ever-changing world of clubland, Duckie want to keep our gang together for life. We have an umbrella/collective of dozens of performers and artists that join us for different projects.

What’s the theme of the new show?

Duckie are taking over the Barbican this Christmas with a show, a market, a party and workshops.

We have a tradition of making alternative Christmas shows at the Barbican and this is our latest. ‘Copyright Christmas’ is like a market theatre, but with a real market attached. It’s a post-panto promenade performance.

What performers can we expect?

It stars twenty performers, including Scottee, Dickie Beau, Ryan Styles, Bird la Bird and others from London’s alternative post-queer performance scene.

For a few years we produced an event called Gay Shame – with performances in market stalls and sideshows, and this is a Christmas version of that. It’s Christmas time so there will be lots of cross-dressing, in the best British tradition.

Tell us about the market stalls…

Duckie Christmas Market runs most nights in the foyers of the theatre, with 65 stalls selling homemade goods. It’s a place to pop into after work – weeknights it’s open from 6pm until 9.30pm and weekends it’s 2pm until 9.30pm.

You can buy lots of unusual stocking fillers, mooch about, drink mulled wine and eat mince pies. London is very corporate and commercial – especially at Christmas time – and we wanted to provide somewhere that was homely and communal and had a real spirit of Christmas about it.

The Market is free to enter of course, and we are throwing a big Duckie Christmas Party there on Friday 16th December. DJs Readers Wifes want to rock the Barbican dancefloor – a place normally famed for classical music.

Tell us a bit more about the production and design, courtesy of the talented Robin Whitmore. What treats for the eyes will we have this year?

The set is like a market place or a shopping centre – the audience walk around the show visiting fake ‘shops’ along the way. Robin has created a cathedral for consumerism. The gag is that we all worship shopping and consumption at Christmas time and it’s all got a bit out of hand.

In an age when we know the Katie Price of everything and the value of nothing, we will ask: ‘Does Christmas mean more than shopping?’

 

• Copyright Christmas runs until 31st December, tickets are £19.99.
• The Duckie Christmas Market runs until 30th December in The Barbican foyer and is free entry. Weekdays 6pm–9.30pm, weekends 2pm–9.30pm.
• The Duckie Christmas Party is on Friday 16th December, 9.30pm–1am and is also free entry.
• The Barbican is at Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS.
• You can get more information at www.barbican.org.uk/duckie or www.duckie.co.uk.

 

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