Paul T Davies

Paul is a playwright, director, actor, academic, (he has a PhD from the University of East Anglia), teacher and theatre reviewer! His plays include Living with Luke, (UK tour 2016), Play Something, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Drayton Arms Theatre, London 2018), , (2019), and now The Miner’s Crow, which won the inaugural Artist’s Pick of the Fringe Award at the first ever Colchester Fringe Festival 2021.  In lockdown 2020 he created the audio series Isolation Alan, available on Youtube, and performed online in the Voice Box Festival. He is the founder member of Stage Write, a Colchester based theatre company, and his acting roles include Rupert in How We Love by  Annette Brook, first performed at the Vaults Festival 2020 and revived at the Arcola and at Theatre Peckham in 2021. Follow: @stagewrite_

INTERVIEW: Tom Wells on his new musical Drip at the Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe, Features, Interviews, LGBT
Drip by Tom Wells Edinburgh Fringe

Paul T. Davies has been a fan of playwright Tom Wells since seeing his breakthrough play Jumpers For Goalposts, (which is also being performed at the Fringe by Kite in the Storm at The Space on the Mile), and here Tom chats about his and Matthew Robins’ new musical, Drip, performing as part of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hi Tom, I’m a massive fan of your work! In particular you celebrate working class lives and LGBTQ people and those who feel isolated. What was the inspiration behind Drip? When I was writing the words for Drip the show’s director Jane Fallowfield and I ran a few workshops with young people around Hull, especially the Shout Group for young LGBTQ+ people at The Warren Project. Jane’s company Script Club has a really clear mission: Jane and the playwright do workshops in the writer’s home town (in my case, Hull) to … Read more

Edinburgh Fringe LGBTQ Preview Part Two

Features, LGBT
Bottom Edinburgh Fringe LGBT Preview

Following my first feature on the superb range of LGBTQ work on show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, many companies got in touch to flag up their shows, It felt somewhat remiss to not cover more, and I’m tempted by many of them, so here’s a follow up! Willy Hudson is creating a very promising piece of work called Bottom, and he is being supported by, among others, the superb Bryony Kimmings. Bottom is a ‘queer coming-of-age remix’, exploring performance anxiety, sexual politics and identity within queer culture. He says, “ I’m trying to put queer stories centre stage, and open them up to give true representation in a funny, honest and inclusive way.” Although listed as a theatre piece, it has a fusion of form with comedy, storytelling, and song. (Summerhall, 1-26 August) Staying at Summerhall, A Generous Lover: LaJohn Joseph sounds very strong. LaJohn Joseph is a trans-feminine … Read more

INTERVIEW: Sigrid Neilson and Lavender Menace Creatives

Edinburgh Fringe, Features, Interviews, LGBT
Love Song to Lavender Menace

While London’s Gays The Word bookshop is more in the public eye, (it featured heavily in the film Pride), less is known about Lavender Menace, the bookshop that began in the cloakroom of Scotland’s first gay nightclub and became the beating heart of Edinburgh’s LGBT community. Now celebrated as a play, Love Song to Lavender Menace performs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival following a sell-out run at the Lyceum. Paul T. Davies caught up with Sigrid Neilson, co-founder of Lavender Menace, and the team behind the show. I myself am just catching up with the history of Lavender Menace, so, for visitors to the Fringe, can you give me a brief outline of the history-maybe with one or two good anecdotes? SIGRID NEILSON, CO-FOUNDER OF LAVENDER MENACE: The bookshop grew out of the fact that, for many LGBT people, including me, life in the sixties and seventies mostly had to … Read more