Reclaiming Physicality and Performance

 Posted by Astra

Before joining Lashings, I hadn't been on stage in five years. In the interim, my creativity had been channelled through a laptop in words and visuals. And a lot of it still is, and I love that. But performing on a stage again has given me back a mode of expression that I'd missed terribly -- using the whole of my body to tell a story.

For me, the best parts of any kind of creative process are the moments when it consumes me -- glancing at the clock and realising that hours have passed while I've been doing nothing but hammering out the next part of a story or storyboarding a video. With something like writing, that doesn't happen all the time, and that's okay. It's perfectly possible to get excellent work done without the lightning bolt of inspiration.

But the nature of performance is immersive. I don't know what other performers' experiences of their work are like, but for me, if I'm not wholly invested in the moment when I'm on stage, I'm not doing a good job. And there's something thrilling about that, the way that inhabiting a role or an act requires all of my mind and body.

I'm used to creativity being a mental activity, but performing with Lashings has brought the physical back, and it's wonderful. I have to think about my stance, my mannerisms, my voice and my facial expressions and use them all in combination to communicate to a live audience, a vastly different experience than sitting at a desk writing a story. It's terrifying and really quite exhilarating.

I'm used to the kinds of pursuits that require skills like talking and listening, not running and dancing. But acting requires me to find a physicality that I usually ignore. Here at the Fringe, as Fanny Whittington nears the end of its second week, every part of me from head to toe is involved in what I'm doing. Every night I am bounding onto stage and demanding that an audience looks at me, not just my face but my whole body. It's frightening, not just to accept but to demand that kind of attention, but it's rewarding too.

So many of us at Lashings are from groups who are constantly told that our physical appearance is not good enough, that it not does not conform enough to narrow standards set out by society at large. As members of marginalised and oppressed groups we are so often told that we should neither be seen nor heard. But all of us get up on stage and we charm and delight our audience and we are fantastic just as we are. It's a wonderful thing to be a part of. I get a huge amount from it, and I hope some of our audience does too.

In an hour I'm going to get into costume and breathe life into Ali Chapman for the penultimate time. I will sing, dance, laugh, shout and perform for an audience for an entire hour, just like I've been doing every night for two weeks, and I can't wait.

Damn, it's good to rip the label off.

Fanny Whittington is on tonight and tomorrow night, 20:15, Gryphon Venues, Bread Street, Edinburgh.

Lashings at NUS Women's Conference 2013

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

A week ago on Tuesday, Lashings performed at the NUS Women's Conference in York - a night we also chose to officially launch our crowdfunder for taking Fanny Whittington to Edinburgh this year! Valentina, Astra, and Cleopatra share their feelings on the gig.

 Valentina writes:

We were utterly overwhelmed at the reception - 200+ noisy, enthusiastic, fast-tweeting, colourfully dressed and well-informed feminist activists, fresh from a long day of discussion and planning, looked absolutely delighted to see us. They cheered and laughed from the moment three Tories jumped onto the stage, a little rushed and flustered from a start time earlier than we'd been expecting, and by the time we'd resurrected Thatcher to tell them all about spin, they were cheering and clapping along in earnest.

Spirits stayed high throughout our 45-minute set, which took in performance poetry, stand-up comedy and singing numbers and covered discussion of straight and queer relationship models in the media, the policing of normative beauty standards, the failyness of transphobic feminists and lots more besides. It was fabulous to hear different sections of the crowd cheer the start of several songs as they recognised them - music inspiration came from Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Wicked, RENT, Mary Poppins and the Buffy musical - and laugh at small asides in the lyrics. (Playing several villains, I found it rather difficult to keep a straight - or brooding, or evil, or patronising - face when standing before such enthusiasm.)

We were helped along by the fantastic techie power of feminist DJ extraordinaire and long-time Lashfriend Ruth Pearce, who ran an excellent dancing set soon after the entertainment. As the NUS had provided hotel rooms, we were able to stick around after our set - it was unusual to not be scrambling to clear away and catch a train afterwards, and we greatly enjoyed being able to chat and dance with our audience into the night. Several people invited us to perform at their student unions, and we even had an offer of publicity help in Edinburgh. The next morning, tired out from dancing and full of hotel breakfast, we returned south still glowing happily over the gig.

Astra writes:

The NUS Women's Conference marked my third gig since joining Lashings as part of their recruitment drive last autumn. And this time, I was doing more acts in front of a lot more people than before.

But the inevitable stage fright beforehand proved totally worth it, as I had a fantastic time. Playing to a crowd that we knew were on our wavelength was a huge amount of fun. The moment they started clapping along to Spoonful of Bullshit, clearly just as delighted by the juxtaposition of Mary Poppins + Tories as we are, I stopped panicking and started performing.

For me it was a particular pleasure to sing 'Dead Girlfriend' for the first time, an act that's meant a lot to me since I first saw it at a Lashings gig two years ago.

It was wonderful to watch other Lashers perform so brilliantly - each poem, song and piece of compering or standup came together to create a very exciting and entertaining set. Ending the gig with a rousing audience participation chorus of 'join the fight with me against hetero-patriarchy' was a delight, and I have no doubt that the activists sat at tables at front of us intend to go on and do just that.

 Cleopatra writes:

I can safely say I've almost never had a Lashings gig like Tuesday's at the NUS Women's Conference in York before. Probably not since I joined up last minute to help with last year's Cinderella Panto. It certainly marked a first for me in that I've never felt so unconstricted by stage fright in my performance. (If you've ever spoken to me before, after, or during a gig, you've probably found me quite short, irritable, and/or aloof. Rather overpowering stage fright at work.) I'm hoping it's a lasting change rather than a one-off thanks to a fabulous audience!

The gig did get off to a bit of an inauspicious start, my entrance was slightly late, due to an earlier start time than we were expecting. The others covered for me like pros, however, and I don't think the audience even noticed the change. Like Astra, I noticed how much they enjoyed Margaret Thatcher giving lessons on how to improve the deficit to the tune of Mary Poppins, laughing and clapping in time to the music. This was an incredible boost and spurred us on through the rest of the set, full of Lashings staples I've loved both as performer and audience member. It was wonderful to be able to focus on performing, rather than doing an adequate job through a haze of nerves.

It also made a lovely change not having to pack up at top speed and clear the venue or make a mad dash for the train. We had a great time afterwards at the feminist disco.

In contrast to Astra's experience as a newer Lasher, if you had told me when I joined that just over a year later I would be the most experienced Lasher at a gig, I would have told you you were dreaming. I've loved so much about my time with Lashings and this gig felt like a real milestone for me in terms of how far I've come as a performer.

We spent a very enjoyable night drawing each others' attention to various tweets from our audience - one Lasher has put these together into a Storify, stored here if you'd like to have a gander.

Transformative works

Posted by kaberett

this is my skeleton
this is the skin it's in
that is, according to light
and gravity
i'll take off my disguise
the mask you met me in
'cuz i got something
for you to see

– Ani DiFranco, Shameless

Every day of my life is a transformative work.

“She”, they call me, or “What's wrong with your legs?”, they ask, or “We don't really need to tell the extended family this, do we?”

I was assigned female at birth. I started binding in 2009. I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2010: I'd been symptomatic for six years. In 2011, I changed my name and started using a walking stick (and that's Ani's fault – but a story for another time). In 2012, I started using a wheelchair.

One way or another, I seem to spend an awful lot of my time transitioning: between gender roles, between modes of apparent ability. As I become more visibly trans*, as I become more visibly disabled – as I remake myself into something to live with, rather than something to live through with gritted teeth – parallels become more and more obvious to me.

I'm a long way from being the first person to voice these similarities, and I shan't be the last, but:

That I am using a walking stick today, and was using my wheelchair yesterday, doesn't mean I'm “better”: it means that the awkwardness of the chair outweighed its benefits. That I use feminine pronouns in some situations instead of my generally preferred neuter ones does not, for me, mean that I'm not genderqueer; definitely doesn't mean I'm not trans*.

It just means that sometimes I get tired: of needing to go an extra half mile to get to dropped kerbs; of the Victorian prescriptivist arguments over the epicene pronoun; of needing to remember that car drivers behave strangely when you are in a chair; of the looks on people's faces at my long hair, or when I stand up to fetch something from a shelf.

Sometimes it is easier to wear a mask and play pretend than it is to patrol my borders.

One way or another, I spend a lot of time performing my identities. In public, in my chair, I have the choice of being authentically me – of standing, of lifting my chair up stairs, of not allowing society's assumptions to disable me further – or I can let the fear keep me sitting, keep me smiling, keep me asking for help, keep me from slamming on the brakes whenever anyone touches my chair without permission. I can dutifully bind every day, facing down the chronic fatigue to make sure laundry happens when it needs to for that to not be kinda unpleasant... or I could listen to and respect my body and get misgendered more frequently.

In my experience? The “oh dear it's a wheelchair how do we deal with that” face has an awful lot in common with the “oh god they're going to demand gender-neutral markers in the records aren't they” face. The overbearing concern and the overwriting of my autonomy are common to both: “Well, if you're sure...”

And so I end up performing my identity. I suppose, at least, I'm not without choice in which role to play: like I say, I can be exaggeratedly a good crip, a good genderqueer person, and fit people's expectations; or I can be aggressively and ostentatiously myself and stare down the world with it.

But neither of those are easy options.

And yet. There is – as ever, as in cliché – a third option. And that is to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and make a public space for my private self – to do out loud the work I've been doing inside my head for years.

I was a field geologist. I was a hiker. Recognising that those aren't things I can do any more – that I'll likely never do fieldwork on Mount Erebus, Antarctica; that it's going to be a long time before I get up to a 3000m peak under my own steam again, if it ever happens; that the Hangerer, Austria is going to remain on my list of Unfinished Business – is, yes, a loss. Saying goodbye to my childhood nicknames and to ticking “F” on forms without compunction wasn't all that much easier, honestly.

… did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage...

But I couldn't keep it up. A major part of fieldwork is knowing when you're hitting your limits – and how to avoid getting yourself killed. There is only so hard I can push myself, so far I can go, before I have to face up to the fact that I need to stop: this far and no further, or, more often, that far and no further, the line way out of sight behind me. (And I want to note here that a major part of the trans* experience, though thankfully not part of my trans* experience so far, is also how to avoid getting killed.)

Here is what I am learning: how to recognise my boundaries. How to enforce them. How to treat myself with kindness. When to fight, and when I'm better off saving the energy for another day.

Have my body's limits – in terms of physical activity; in terms of tolerating recognition as female – shifted? Yes, they have. But this is not limitation and it is not weakness: I am listening to myself, and I am learning myself.

And in that there is strength.

We are a work in progress, my body and myself, but I refuse to regard myself as defective, as a failure, as a cosmic error to be struggled against and overcome. I'm reframing myself for myself, and for my audience: this is the only body I get, and for some things it works marvellously and for others it doesn't, and that is not a failing.

All it is is variation.

London Lashings + CN Lester, 27th July

Posted by Annalytica

We are very excited about our new show, Alternative Sex Education! Having already performed this show at Oxfringe, and selected acts at The Cutlery Drawer in Brighton and Cambridge, we're now gearing up to take Alt.Sex.Ed to London!


We're returning to The Pirate Castle, the lovely venue where we performed the panto in February. We are delighted to be joined by the stunningly talented CN Lester, who will be performing songs from their album Ashes.

Alt.Sex.Ed is a journey through what we learned and what we wish we'd learned about sex and sexuality while we were growing up. Drawing on threads from previous shows and weaving in new acts, it has been described as "a veritable jumper of awesomeness". It is also the show that has swept new Lashers kabarett, Orlando and Valentina into the fold!

So, here are the details:

The address for the venue is: Pirate Castle, Oval Road, London NW1 7EA
Doors open at 7:30 and the show will begin at 8.
Tickets cost £7/£5 concessions
Food and drink are not available on site but you are welcome to bring your own.

The venue is fully wheelchair accessible, with accessible and gender-liberated toilets. There are four steps, or a purpose-built lift, to access the performance space. There will be plenty of seating.

Trigger warnings for this show are listed here. One section of this show is particularly distressing, and there will be an onstage warning before that section. There will be someone on hand to answer questions about triggers on the night, and there will be seats reserved for those who may need to leave the room.

If you have any questions about accessibility, triggers or anything else, please get in touch at feministburlesque@gmail.com

We hope to see you there!

Because it is difficult, and because it is joyful: living, relating and performing with a visibly imperfect voice

Posted by Valentina


Most people I have met are afraid to sing. Though I loved to do so, I was terrified to sing for many years, having been told by various people close to me that I sang badly. An epiphany came when I saw the Lashings panto last December. The members of Lashings sang well, though many did not sing perfectly - I think the image of 'perfect' I have in mind is something like that in Glee, where people can burst into perfectly-tuned, soaring and completely-backed songs at the drop of a hat, and on screen, it all just *works*. The Lashers sang well, and confidently, and they didn't sound as though they had just stepped out of Glee - they sang authentically, and in a relatable, un-autotuned way. Occasionally one would miss a note, or another would start a line a little late, and yet they were up there, singing loudly and confidently to an audience who had travelled and paid to see them perform - the Lashers knew they were good.

This was a staggering realisation to me. I realised that my own singing voice might not be perfect, but it was fine: it could even be good enough to perform with. I decided that I wouldn't mind missing notes or singing too quietly - why was it that I'd been working hard on fiercely loving the rest of my body image for years, but had allowed myself to berate my singing voice? I went and spoke with Lashings after the show, and a few weeks later, sang confidently and happily in a room of houmous-eating queers at my first rehearsal.

I'm still working on my fear of singing badly, but there's something else that's even scarier. I have a visible speech impairment. And now I'm doing cabaret that doesn't just involve singing, but speaking as well.

Alternative Sex Education - Oxford, 8 & 10 June

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time



So, we did it! Thanks to the great kindness of many people, we successfully achieved our target over on WeFund¹. (We've sent out emails to all our donors - if you haven't had one, check your spam folder!)

Now, what are we going to do with your money (apart from sending you awesome rewards, of course)? The next show, as you'll know if you read kaberett's post on Friday, is called Alternative Sex Education.

In a lot of ways, this feels like the show we've been building up to, or dancing around, for some time. It's still a sketch show, but it's been pulled together and is presented like a play, rather than a cabaret variety show. It's still full of witty and insightful parodies of popular culture, but it's also much more in the business of offering alternatives.

Along with all your old favourite acts, there's plenty that's new: and where else could you see Lady Gaga mashed up with Twilight, hear a song about carnivorous vaginas, or join the Kink Scouts?

You first chance to see this exciting new show is coming up next week, during Oxford Pride and the OxFringe festival:

Alternative Sex Education
Friday 8 & Sunday 10 June
10pm - 11pm

It's taking place at the Old Fire Station, at 40 George Street, central Oxford. If you live outside Oxford, never fear - this venue is right next to the coach station, and only 500m from the train station.

Buy tickets - see trigger warnings.

And now, we're off to spread some more posters around town! Hope to see you there...

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1: We didn't exactly have a bad experience with WeFund, but we wouldn't necessarily recommend them to other groups looking to raise money, either - we've had to put in a lot more behind-the-scenes work than we expected, and they have worrying IT practices like emailing out people's passwords in plain-text emails.

Alternative Sex Education

Posted by Sebastienne



So, the OxFringe programme is out, and it's official - Lashings are performing a show called "Alternative Sex Education" on the 8th and 10th of June. It's at the Old Fire Station, an incredibly central & accessible venue which we are totally chuffed to have secured - ten minutes from Oxford train station and one minute from Oxford bus station. (Londoners: by train you can get from Paddington to Oxford quicker than you can get from Ealing to Barking.) See more details & book tickets here.

Development is well underway for the show that we're calling "alt.sex.ed" - bouncing off from a review we got which said "if only Lashings could end up on the national curriculum", and also the desire that many of us have to do a schools' tour one day, we're developing a show that's based around the types of sex & relationship education that we wish we'd received.

We're super-excited about some of the things that this is going to let us talk about! Titles are being thrown around like "The Consent Song", "Bad Romance", "Professor Galatea's History of Eurocentric Queerdom"... (by the by, Professor Galatea would love to hear your suggestions for historical figures to be included on this list, particularly in the 1550-1850 bracket).

But it's also tough.

Fundraising is a Feminist Issue

Posted by Sebastienne


Being a member of Lashings of Ginger Beer Time is great fun. Sometimes, we get to stand up in front of a room full of politically-minded feminists and queers, and we get to be ourselves and sing silly songs and somehow we get applause for it.

Being a member of Lashings of Ginger Beer Time is frantic. At the Oxford panto gig, I'd invited a bunch of awesome poets & comics to come and perform in the bar, and I didn't get a chance to see any of them because I was running around trying to get the sound desk set up and making sure that the stage didn't fall off its breeze-blocks.

Oxford: Events in March

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer



March is a great month for queer-feminist events in Oxford!

Oxford International Women's Festival kicks off today with a performance of The Vagina Monologues at the OFS. It's also on tomorrow (Saturday 3 March), and it stars all sorts of Lash-people, including erstwhile techie Shev. Not only will this event be great fun, they're also raising money for Oxford Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre.

Sunday 4 March - Laugh Out Proud, featuring our very own Sally Outen, will be raising laughs and money for all sorts of great local charities.

Sunday 11 March - Gender Rebels: A Queer and Feminist Cabaret - strictly speaking, this is part of the Oxford International Women's Festival, but I draw particular attention to it because everyone's favourite Queer Feminist Burlesque Collections LASHINGS OF GINGER BEER TIME are doing a couple of short sets there. As are Lash-favourites Lucy Ayrton & Liztopia. We think it will be a great event, and would love to see you there.

Sunday 25 March - the deeply homophobic organisation "Christian Concern" will be arriving in Oxford for their "controversial" conference. There will be some exciting actions taking place to show them - and the world at large - that Oxford does NOT welcome homophobes.

You made a story about *us*

Posted by Annalytica

Friday night was the very first (and also penultimate) performance of the Lashings Panto. We took over the Pirate Castle in Camden (chosen for its winning combination of accessibility, location and name - arrrr!) and turned it into "a liberal queer feminist lesbian bi queer asexual poly trans* genderqueer kinky cabaret pantomime" (thanks, @scattermoon!)

If you are planning to come and see the show in Oxford, fear not, I will avoid spoilers as far as possible in this post! The evening is probably best summed up by the phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous", which, I think, is exactly how a queer feminist panto should be.

Book your tickets for the Lashings Panto!

Posted by Annalytica

If you want to be sure of getting a seat at the momentous event that will be the first ever Lashings Pantomime, you can now book online. Payment will still be at the door.


To book for the London show on 3rd February, visit this link: http://alturl.com/2dc4y
Doors open at 8, panto starts at 8:30.

To book for the Oxford show on 11th February, visit this link: http://alturl.com/7ixjb
Doors open at 7, and there will be all manner of exciting support acts until 9, when the panto itself will begin!

Please note that if you have not arrived by the time the panto is due to start, we may offer your seat to someone else.

Please invite all your friends!

Oxford events round-up

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Here are some shiny events happening in Oxford over the next few weeks.


Oxford Lesbian History Group

Tuesday 24 January, 8pm - Downstairs at the Castle

Discussion of women's diaries and letters, the practical and interpretative difficulties of working with them.

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Oxford International Women's Festival Fundraiser

Monday 30 January, 7pm - Port Mahon

Performers:
Lucy Aryton - Poet
Stuart Bryant - Poet
Hannah Bruce - Acoustic singer / songwriter
Tamara Parsons Baker - Singer/ songwriter
Rachel Hughes - Pianist / singer / songwriter

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Oxford University lecture for LGBT History Month (all welcome):
Alan Turing: the One who became a Zero
A lecture by Dr Andrew Hodges, author of Alan Turing: The Enigma


Tuesday 7 February, 5.30pm

Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW

"Alan Turing was the chief scientific figure in the Anglo-American codebreaking effort in World War II, centred on Bletchley Park. His life as a gay man illustrates the harsh oppression but also the growing consciousness of that era."

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Oh, and did we mention we're having a party on Saturday 11 February, including your LAST CHANCE TO SEE the Lashings of Ginger Beer Time Pantomime? It's at the East Oxford Community Centre from 7pm. Read about it on Facebook or on the blog.

Cinderella: A Queer Sort of Pantomime

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer



Hello, boys and girls and everyone else!

Just in time to beat the midwinter misery, join radical queer feminist burlesquers LASHINGS OF GINGER BEER TIME in their first foray into full-length foolishness! Yes, it’s time for the very first Lashings of Ginger Beer Time Pantomime! Gleefully revelling in all the best elements of panto -- appalling puns, women in tailcoats and knee-boots, happy endings and slightly inebriated Fairy Godparents -- we’re ditching the more faily bits of the pantomime tradition in order to fit in more jokes about weasels.

Events in London this weekend

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer


Another weekend full of exciting events:





Friday 25th November

Ah! Forget My Fate - A Complete History of Women in Opera (Abridged!)
Queer feminist opera by Better Strangers
10pm King's Head Theatre, Islington, London
Tickets here

Ah! Forget My Fate will take you on a musical journey. If that sounds cliché, bear with us: we begin in the late 17th century, with a bold two-woman adaptation of Dido and Aeneas; then soprani Claudia Guastella and Jessie Holder guide their audience through the dramatic and often disastrous fate of the operatic heroine; the sultry and salacious stylings of villainesses; the dubious dealings of witches and wenches; and the curious custom of dressing women as men.

Saturday 26th November

Feminist Library book sale
2.30pm at the FEMINIST LIBRARY, 5 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7XW (map)

On top of selling duplicates from the Feminist Library collection (so very valuable out of print feminist texts!) there will be a selection of non feminist books and knick knacks - and the good thing is that you are free to bring your own books and donate them to the library to sell on the day! All this plus the chance to visit the library and browse the collection, meet other amazing feminists and sample some of our delicious food.
The library is wheelchair accessible and the event is open to all.
After the event, we will take the library vintage red banner and join the Reclaim the Night march - why not join us?
You can RSVP on Facebook event; and use this to invite your friends! You can contact the library on admin@feministlibrary.co.uk or on Facebook; or by following @feministlibrary on Twitter.com

CN Lester at the Camden Enterprise
7:30 until 10:30

Singer, song-writer, pianist, trans activist, and all-round awesome person CN Lester is performing at the Camden Enterprise, "Channelling some more Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith - and some favourites from Ashes."

Lashings show: 22nd October, EOCC, 7-11pm

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Just a reminder......if you're anywhere near Oxford next Saturday 22nd October, come to the East Oxford Community Centre at 7pm and see our show!



If you're not able to get to Oxford but know people who are, please tell them about it. It's going to be AWESOME.

That is all.

Lashings show coming up!

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Lashings of Ginger Beer are very proud to be performing as part of the Oxford International Women's Festival Fringe. The Fringe Festival takes place over the weekend Fri 21st - Sun 23rd October.


We've got an epic setlist lined up for you, and some very exciting new support acts.

You can find out more about all the other awesome events taking place over the weekend here

Looking forward to seeing you lovely people there!


When: Saturday 22nd October, 7pm - 11pm

Where: East Oxford Community Centre, 44b Princes Street, Oxford OX4 1HU

Cost: £5

Accessibility: The venue has a gentle ramp up to the entrance. There are accessible toilets.
There will be plenty of seating. Please let us know if you have any particular accessibility needs - email feministburlesque@gmail.com

Edinburgh!

Posted by Annalytica

As we may have mentioned, we're heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival very soon! The first of us are travelling up on Thursday, which is also the day that marks six months since this blog was launched.



While we're away, we won't be updating the blog regularly, so things will be rather quiet around here for the next couple of weeks. Service as usual will resume in September!

In the meantime, if you're in Edinburgh yourself, here are some shows to look out for:

Batman! Holy Spoof Musical Batstravaganza! featuring Lashings' own Jenni


Mae Day: I'm Not Waving, I'm Drowning: Lashings were lucky enough to see comedian Mae Martin performing live at Red Box. With her quirky, self-depracating style, she is very likeable and very very funny.


Morgan & West: Crime Solving Magicians Morgan and West can be held partly responsible for bringing together several of the Lashers-to-be, back in the depths of Lashings history.Their own show is well worth a look.

And, obviously, you should see Sally and Lashings!

Lashings performances, TONIGHT in London and next Thursday in Oxford

Posted by Annalytica

We're gearing up for Edinburgh with two preview shows, where we'll be performing some of our new material as well as lots of old favourites.



First, TONIGHT, we're performing at the Dogstar Ballroom in Brixton, London as part of Moulin Rage.
Doors open at 7, performances start at 7:30, and we'll be on at around 10, but do get there before then because the other acts will be awesome! Tickets are £6 or £4 unwaged, and all proceeds go to Rape Crisis South London.

Please note that The Dogstar Ballroom is on the second floor, and does not have step-free access. For more access info, please see http://thecutlerydrawer.wordpress.com/


Then, next week on Thursday 4th August, we are performing at the Bullingdon Arms, 162 Cowley Road, Oxford. From 7:30 - 10:30 we'll be entertaining you with a double bill preview of both of our Edinburgh shows, including a full hour of stand-up comedy from the sensational Sally Outen, and the usual eclectic mix of song, dance and sketches from the rest of us. Tickets are £7, or £5 for concessions. Facebook event here

The Bullingdon performance space is on the ground floor and there is an accessible toilet.

We hope to see you at one or both of these events!

Lashings gig in London!

Posted by Annalytica

Lashings are extremely excited to be performing at Moulin Rage, a night of cabaret, music, and activism with all proceeds going to Rape Crisis South London. There's a great line up including dieselpunk cabaret from our good friends The Mechanisms, and genderqueer singer-songwriter CN Lester.

When: Wednesday 27th July 2011. Open 7-11:30pm, music 7:30-11pm

Where: The Dogstar (2nd floor – The Ballroom), 389 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton

Cost: £6 waged, £4 unwaged

Buy tickets here

Sign up to the Facebook event here

This will be a chance to get a preview of lots of the amazing new acts we'll be performing in Edinburgh. Hope to see you there!

Lashings at the Edinburgh Fringe

Posted by Annalytica

It's just six weeks until Lashings of Ginger Beer return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and we can't wait!



We have a gorgeous new poster designed by the hugely talented andustar, lots of exciting new acts, and a fab new venue.

Lashings will be taking not one but two shows to the Fringe this year:  the usual melting pot of song, dance and sketches that is Lashings of Ginger Beer Time, and a full hour of stand-up from the sensational Sally Outen in her show "Sally Outen: Non-Bio?"

You can find out more about both shows on our website, book tickets for Lashings of Ginger Beer Time here and for Sally here, and sign up to the Facebook event here

It's going to be even better than last year!