Gags , gore and a giant eyeball
This December , Club Silencio , “ Brighton ’ s weirdest queer theatre collective ”, stage their first Xmas pantomime . Stuart Warwick , Silencio ’ s creator , tells Peter Chrisp all about it
For the last nine years , Club Silencio has been staging extraordinary shows in various Brighton venues . I remember seeing my first one in a sex dungeon in Kemptown and feeling as if I had walked into one of the transgressive early films of John Waters . The next time I saw them they ’ d built a giant television set in the Phoenix Art Space , where they performed a surreal version of Blind Date , in which a water phobic contestant won a date with the Creature from Hove Lagoon . Then they turned the Arcobaleno bar into a pool party set in hell .
You can see Club Silencio yourself this December , in the Latest Music bar in Manchester St , performing My Bloody Pantomime (“ Pantomime characters are quaking in their stilettos as a serial killer is picking them off one by one ”). We are promised “ gags , gore and a giant eyeball in this pantomime of epic proportions .” Stuart says this is the first Club Silencio show to feature panto characters : “ However , most of them are dead !”
I asked Stuart how it all began . “ Silencio was created back in 2015 . I ’ d been spending some nights at Subline , at the time Brighton ’ s only men-only sex dungeon , with my friend John Tovey . We loved it down there and saw loads of possibility for the subterranean space . The idea was to subvert the space by making it a very classy night . Dressing up in fancy clothes was encouraged , and the space was dressed with frilly lamp shades . We had a toilet attendant , who recited poetry , and a gimp in a tuxedo who walked around with doughnuts on a silver tray . I booked friends - mostly female folk singers - to play , as they brought something unique to the dank and seedy space , and I dressed up as a clown , and sang songs between the acts . For the first show I didn ’ t really have many acts , so I made up sketches involving puppets , and got friends to wear masks and lip-sync to weird audio clips .”
As for the Silencio name , Stuart says , “ I had been to Paris that year and really wanted to go to David Lynch ’ s nightclub , Club Silencio , named after the club in his film Mulholland Drive . However , it was very expensive to get in and I couldn ’ t afford it at the time . So , irked by the exclusiveness of it , when it came to picking a name for my own club night , I chose that as a bit of a screw you to David , because Brighton ’ s Club Silencio was going to be a cheap and more subversive space .
John was my chief in command , and he was brilliant at dressing the room . My friend Joe worked with me in a kitchen at the time , and I persuaded him to be the gimp for the night . My friend Louis was the toilet attendant , and
Juno was happy to DJ . Another friend , Ralph , ate doughnuts slowly to a weird advert for Krispy Kreme I ’ d made ( the joke was they were our sponsors ). I loved the idea that anyone who wanted to get involved could . After that lots of amazing performers , musicians , actors and creatives have come and gone over the nine years that followed , but John , Misha , Kit , Damian , Tommy , Jon , and Juno , have been at the core of Silencio .”
Alongside Stuart , the main writer is the novelist and actress Juno Dawson . Juno played Dorothy in Club Silencio ’ s wonderful musical , Return Again to Oz , a hit show in last year ’ s fringe . You can listen to the songs from the show on Bandcamp .
The regular club host is Jon Griffin , who does an uncanny impression of Death from Ingmar Bergman ’ s The Seventh Seal . Jon writes his own satirical monologues for the shows , and is so good at being Death that he has since taken the character into stand-up comedy clubs . He ’ s a composer , like Stuart , and they co-write the songs for the shows .
For Pride in 2019 , to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots , Stuart and Juno created Equality of the Daleks . Juno , author of several Dr Who related books , got to play the doctor in a time travelling investigation of how the brick that started the riots was thrown . The brick thrower was a sexually confused dalek .
I wondered if the shows are a reaction to the way Brighton Pride has become corporate and mainstream ? “ Well , I thought the gay scene was crap , and Pride was just an extension of that . It had nothing to offer me and made me feel unwelcome because I didn ’ t conform to the idea of what a gay man should be like . I rejected it , and thus was an outsider from my tribe , so in the end I made my own tribe . Now queer outsiders are very in vogue , and there ’ s loads of great nights that cater to them .”
For the last nine years , Club Silencio ’ s magnificent sets , props and costumes have been made by Kit Yellery ( Odd Fabrication on Instagram ). Stuart says , “ Kit is incredible and one of the things I always loved was arriving at the venue and seeing what amazing things she ’ d made . She really is a genius . Last year was her final show with us , and it feels very strange not to have her involved now .”
Club Silencio shows are inclusive , welcoming and immersive . Audience members are encouraged to dress up and take part in surreal games and competitions . There ’ s usually an interval , when the actors pose for life drawing sessions , with prizes at the end .
Next year will be Club Silencio ’ s tenth anniversary , and Stuart says he has big plans for the celebration : “ I can say no more but it will be something special .” Meanwhile , we have My Bloody Pantomime to look forward too – guaranteed to be a highlight of the festive season .
l www . outsavvy . com / event / 22586 / clubsilencio-presents-my-bloody-pantomime l www . instagram . com / clubsilenciobrighton l https :// iamelliotlee . wixsite . com / stuartwarwick l https :// www . jonhgriffin . com l www . junodawson . com l www . instagram . com / oddfabrication l https :// clubsilencio2 . bandcamp . com / album / return-again-to-oz-original-castsoundtrack