Outburst is delighted to present a reading from a new Outburst commission by acclaimed playwright Raphael Amahl Khouri.

Behold the Enduring Psychosexual Power of Jeff Goldblum is a one-person work in development that explores the personal and historical relationship between trans people, theatre, plagues, plants, the anthropocene, Dionysus, Artaud, Queen Elizabeth I and Jeff Goldblum.

Following the reading, Raphael will be joined for a conversation on the work with translator and researcher Alice Guthrie, who is currently compiling the first ever anthology of queer Arabic writing, set to appear in parallel Arabic and English editions in 2021.

Raphael Amahl Khouri is a queer, transgender Arab documentary playwright and theatremaker living in Berlin. They are the author of several plays, including She He Me (2019), ICH BRAUCHE MEINE RUHE (2018) and No Matter Where I Go (2014). Khouri is also part of the Climate Change Theater Action. Their work has been published in Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books, 2018) and International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer anthology (Palgrave, 2016). It will also appear in the upcoming International Queer Drama Anthology (Neofelis Verlag) and the Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays.

Commission supported by British Council.  Event supported by Goethe-Institut London.

This Show Is An Action started as a question between friends:
Has dyke culture ever been seen as vital, if seen at all, and is it maybe now more vital than ever?

Taking our cue from Outburst 2020’s The New Lesbian Songbook project, Outburst decided to put two lesbian artists from different generations together to see if they could come up with some answers.
Belfast based musician/songwriter Danielle Carragher and Manchester writer/comedian Debs Gatenby had never met before when they embarked on a series of video chats, WhatsApp conversations and short residencies over six months, to unpack a history of living, loving and organising and to put together a show from what they discovered.
What began as an exploration of social history, invisibility and identity turned into something much more intimate, experimental and expansive, as happens when you get dykes together with some old tapes, a big plate of cheese and an acoustic guitar.Sifting unflinchingly through the pains and joys of dyke life, existential Zoom meltdowns and asides about star signs, This Show Is An Action riffs on 1970s wimmin’s music, the power of community, lesbian kinships and faded political t-shirts.

What is dyke culture in 2020 and what can a new generation – all genders and identities – learn from what went before? Expect new songs, old songs and reflections on dyke life past and present, in an openhearted, inclusive, funny and timely call to collective action.

UPDATE: This work will now be presented in video format, recorded live at the Black Box on Sunday 15th November.

When you buy a ticket for a specific screening, you will have a three hour window between 7.30pm and 10.30pm that evening to view the work.

It’s never too late to look for love. Again.
But where do you even start looking in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic lockdown?
The personal ads? Tinder or Match.com? The Knock Marriage Bureau? Or pray to “Saint Anne, bring me a man…”?

It’s time to take off the mask and reveal your true self.

A master storyteller who brilliantly weaves modern gay experience with traditional Irish storytelling, Richard O’Leary has created some of the most memorable shows in the Outburst programme over the last few years. From There’s A Bishop in My Bedroom to Stories for the Month of the Holy Souls, his autobiographical tales are warm and entertaining, surprising and revelatory.
Richard’s latest one man show takes us by the hand through the Otherworld of online dating. Expect dates, sweets, granola and adventures with Tintin and Snowy.

Don’t forget to pack Barry’s Tea, fairy cakes, two glasses, plastic gloves and beard oil.

This is a fairy tale. My fairy tales are true.

UPDATE: This work will now be presented in video format, recorded live at the Black Box on Saturday 14th November.

When you buy a ticket for a specific screening, you will have a three hour window between 7.30pm and 10.30pm that evening to view the work, or 2pm to 5pm for the matinee streaming.

There’s an awkward tension between being a radical queer activist and getting the child to nursery on time in a Seat Alhambra.

Gemma Hutton knows all about it.

Inspired by her first few years as a parent, she starting to write a comedy show about queer motherhood and heteronormativity which she shared in development for Outburst 2019. In the process of unpacking the so-called norms of working-class family life and parenting for the full show for Outburst 2020, Gemma became more drawn to stories and recollections of her relationship with her own mother and the show evolved into something unexpected and deeply poignant.

Mixing storytelling, theatre and trademark sardonic wit, I / Mother explores kinship, care and convention, holding the queerness of the mothering she experienced herself alongside the kind of motherhood she’s now experiencing with her own daughter.
As warm and intimate as it is sharp, I / Mother takes on the “hard to believe” in a one woman show that is as profoundly relatable as it is personal.