Love Song to Lavender Menace

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

Edinburgh Fringe LGBT Preview

Edinburgh Fringe, Features, LGBT
Edinburgh Fringe LGBT Preview

Paul T Davies takes a look at some of the LGBT offerings at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. Before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival it’s worth accepting one fact of your visit. You will NEVER see everything you have put on your wish list. Several of them will be on at the same time, and unless you have cloned yourself or own a time machine, you’re never going to get around the city fast enough! For the LGBTQ visitor though, there is plenty of work that should reflect your tastes and interest through every aspect of queer life. Not enough work is presented in regional theatre, or even mainstream, that reflects the lives of non traditional sexuality, so the festival is a perfect place to catch new writing and performances that reflect on  and celebrate queer life. Here’s just a small pick of the productions available. A significant event to … Read more