Queer cabaret comes to Islington in November.

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‘Tis the season to be Queer. The crème de la crème of London’s most acclaimed Queer cabaret groups are taking over the Pleasance this December for a festive celebration of London’s renown drag, cabaret, and performance scene.

Following on from two acclaimed residencies with Sink The Pink, this year the venue welcomes a diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community, with drag kings, queens and gender non-conforming artists all taking to the stage.

Acclaimed pan-Asian collective The Bitten Peach will kickstart the festivities and enchant audiences with their Bedtime Stories, before all-female and non-binary theatre and cabaret company Pecs Drag Kings visit Pleasance for the first time with Pecs: Christmas Queer. Finally, the one and only Cocoa Butter Club close out the season and promise to decolonise and remoisturise in a brand-new Christmas revue, Gifted.

Embracing the new normal, the venue has transformed its main house into London’s most exciting, socially distanced comedy, theatre and cabaret space. The new three-tier auditorium will welcome 100 people a night when it reopens in November, bringing the spirit of the Fringe back to London.

The venue will follow up-to-date safety regulations with e-ticketing, enhanced cleaning and table service using the app Butlr to provide drinks as well as new pizzas from neighbours The Depot. The auditorium will open one hour before each performance to give audiences time to settle in and enjoy some pre-show drinks ensuring you can spend your whole evening at the venue in style. A trip to the Pleasance promises to be a fun and safe night out.

Anthony Alderson, Director of Pleasance Theatre Trust, comments, “I’m thrilled that we are re-opening the London space and managing to bring theatre back to London audiences. We have put strict hygiene and cleanliness protocols in place and are making sure that your visit to the Pleasance is as safe as possible. The artists we work with are at the heart of what we do and this re-opening season is all about bringing back that undefinable Fringe spirit that embodies all of us.”

The full Pleasance reopening season will also include Godot is a Woman, the show that was in tech in the Downstairs studio when the venue was forced to close in March. The Pleasance’s commitment to their artists means this fantastic show from Associate Artists Silent Faces will now grace their Main House stage. Next Charles Court Opera, ‘The masters of Gilbert & Sullivan in small places’, are returning with Express G&S and will be making up for lost time by staging the complete works of Gilbert & Sullivan in just over an hour!

The full programme is as follows (with exciting comedy to be announced soon):