Duckie is a collective of performance artists that describes itself as "a Post Gay independent arts outfit."
They produce a mix of so-called "cultural interventions", such as club nights, new-mode pop,
burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. and performance events, as well as anti-theatre experimentation.
They have described their work as "mixing the arthouse with the dosshouse"
and putting "highbrow performance in backstreet pubs and lowbrow performance in posh theatres".
Supported by grants from the
British Council
The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...
and
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...
,
Duckie is based in London but has played in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
as well as the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
, Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
.
Duckie's work is characterised by its engagement with the queer lifestyle and community, showcasing queer performers and performance art at its weekly Saturday club night and providing "a creative forum for alternative gay and lesbian performance and culture".
The company's outlook is distinctly working-class, drawing influences in
John McGrath,
the Victorian
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
, punk culture and illegitimate theatre.
Background
The collective dates back to a club night called ''Duckie'' that started in November 1995 in the south
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
pub
Royal Vauxhall Tavern
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a Grade II listed gay entertainment venue in Vauxhall, London. It is also known as the RVT. It is South London's oldest surviving gay venue.
History
The RVT was built between 1860 and 1862 at Spring Gardens, Kenning ...
(RVT), created by producer Simon Casson and
compere Amy Lamé
Amy Lamé (née Caddle; born 3 January 1971) is an American-British performer, writer, and TV and radio presenter, known for her one-woman shows, her performance group Duckie, and LGBT-themed media works.
She was appointed by the Mayor of Lond ...
.
In a 2007 article for ''
Time Out'',
Paul Burston
Paul Burston is a Welsh journalist and author. He worked for the London gay policing group GALOP and was an activist with ACT UP before moving into journalism. He edited, for some years, the LGBT section of '' Time Out'' and founded the Polar ...
wrote that at the start of Duckie's tenure the RVT was somewhat in decline: "Lack of investment meant the venue remained dark during the week, only coming to life at the weekend with Duckie and ... the Dame Edna Experience."
Burston also records that the opening of the gay nightclub Crash promoted Vauxhall's potential for hosting such ventures, leading to an influx of mainstream clubs into the historic gay area.
Despite this, and the potential in new audiences attracted by the larger clubs, Duckie's growth was again challenged in 1998 when
Lambeth London Borough Council
Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...
and property developer
CLS Holdings attempted to flatten the RVT to make way for a supermarket complex. Duckie was instrumental in defeating this threat: as Burston notes "The performance club Duckie, which had breathed new life into Saturday nights, mounted a vigorous press campaign, protesting outside
Lambeth Town Hall
Lambeth Town Hall, also known as Brixton Town Hall, is a municipal building at the corner of Brixton Hill and Acre Lane, Brixton, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Lambeth London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building. ...
and saving it from the bulldozers."
In 2005, businessmen Paul Oxley and James Lindsay bought the RVT at public auction, bringing new investment to the venue and securing the site as a bar and nightclub.
Performance events
In December 2002, Duckie's ''C'est Vauxhall'' Christmas show at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern created the format of sitting guests at tables and offering them the chance to order short acts, using "Duckie dollars", from a menu.
In December 2003, this was recreated as ''C'est Barbican'' at
The Pit theatre venue at the
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...
.
It won four awards including an
Olivier Award
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...
for best entertainment show and returned to the Barbican in 2004.
The show toured to the
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
as well as
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
[ In December 2007, this show was recreated as ''C'est Duckie!'' at the ]Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, often called The Clemente, is a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural center named after Puerto Rican writer and activist, Clemente Soto Vélez. The Clemente, which was established as a cultural cen ...
, on New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
.
In 2006, Duckie created ''The Class Club'' at The Pit, a piece of event theatre that asked the audience to pre-select a social class for themselves, dress appropriately for the evening and then enjoy a meal and entertainment for their chosen grouping.
Cabaret performer Ursula Martinez has worked as part of Duckie, and it has also attracted performers such as Dusty Limits
Dusty Limits is an Australians, Australian-born cabaret singer and comedian based in the United Kingdom, and one of the leading figures on the "new cabaret" scene.
Biography
Dusty Limits is from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where they first ...
, Janice Connolly
Janice Connolly is an English actress, comedian and artistic director. She runs the Birmingham-based group Women and Theatre, and performs stand-up comedy as her character Mrs Barbara Nice. Connolly has also appeared in ''Coronation Street'', ' ...
, Scott Capurro, Kiki and Herb
Kiki and Herb (Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman) are an American drag cabaret duo. Bond portrays Kiki DuRane, an aging, alcoholic, female lounge singer. Mellman portrays her gay, male piano accompanist, known only as "Herb."
Despite Bond and Mellm ...
and George Chakravarthi
George Chakravarthi is a multi-disciplinary artist working with photography, video, painting and performance. His work addresses the politics of identity including race, sexuality and gender, and also religious iconography among other subjects. ...
.
In 2022, it was announced that the last performance would happen July 2, 2022.
References
External links
Duckie's official website
Duckie's original website 1996-2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duckie (Group)
Theatre companies in the United Kingdom
Cabaret
Performance artist collectives