outside, in the laneway, under  the stars

This is the new monologue that I worked on throughout the pandemic, and which I am finally ready to present to people in its entirety. I've done a number of shows already, at the Brighton Fringe, the Prague Fringe, and the On the Edge Fringe (where the show won the award for Outstanding Original Work) in North Bay, Ontario, in 2023. Next up is my UK tour! Barnstaple, Buxton, and Bedford, in June and July 2024.

Outside, in the Laneway, under the Stars uses a mixture of theatrical monologue, traditional storytelling and spoken word poetry to describe my very particular queer journey and where it’s taken me. I grew up with no notion of homosexuality as a thing that exists, in an environment that frowned upon any talk of sexuality at all (that good old United Empire Loyalist, British heritage!), in an educational system where I was bullied for years without anyone apparently noticing (including, much of the time, unfortunately, me).

My outlet was the imagination, and specifically theatre. The show is as much about theatre as it is about queerness. It’s about moving away from trauma, about growing up. It’s about finding happiness in the day-to-day, and about the necessity of moving through the stage door and getting outside, in the laneway, in the fresh air. It’s also about what I think now, about life and love and what a good life might look like.

I’m presenting the show in two parts, but they’re pretty much stand-alone. You don’t need to see Part I before Part II. Or to see both parts. (Or to see either part, in fact!)