Queen Jesus 10th anniversary festival
Tron Theatre, GoMA, Mono
Glasgow
Presented by Queen Jesus Productions in association with the Tron Theatre Company and Outspoken Arts Scotland
30 October - 3 November 2019
The tenth anniversary celebrations of Queen Jesus Productions’ groundbreaking production The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven take place in October and November 2019.
Returning to the Tron Theatre - the creative birthplace of the work, exactly ten years after the explosive premiere there in November 2009 - the festival included a three-performance run of the original production, the Scottish premiere of the Brazilian production (each followed by a themed Q&A) and the premiere of a brand new production - Untitled 2009, as well as workshops, a late-night cabaret and the launch of a very special edition of Jo’s groundbreaking script.
Performance
Wednesday 30 October - Saturday 2 November | Main House, The Tron
The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven / O Evangelho Segundo Jesus, Rainha Do Ceu / Untitled 2009
Image by Tiu Makkonen
Themed post-show discussions
Wednesday 30 October - Saturday 2 November | Main House, The Tron (also streamed live on Facebook)
Censorship, art and activism: Wednesday 30th October
Chair: Ricky Brown Monahan (Scottish PEN); Renata Carvahlo & Natalia Mallo (Queen Jesus Plays Brazil), Jo Clifford & Susan Worsfold (Queen Jesus Productions)
Reflecting on a decade: 2009-2019: Thursday 31st October
Chair: Marco Biagi; Jo Clifford, Steven Thomson (Outspoken Arts Scotland), Katie Bruce (GoMA), James Morton (Trans Alliance Scotland)
Trans-theology: Friday 1st November
Chair: Dr Zanne Domoney-Lyttle (University of Glasgow); Dr Sarah Nicholson (University of Glasgow), Jo Clifford, Rev Maxwell Reay (NHS), Rev Jane Clarke (Metropolitan Community Church)
Queer freedom & the future: Saturday 2nd November
Chair: Annabel Cooper (Queen Jesus Productions); Jo Clifford, Renata Carvahlo, Jak Soroka (Queen Jesus Productions), Nelly Kelly (writer, Untitled 2009), Adam Kashmiry (artist and activist), Bibi June (artist and activist)
Image by Tiu Makkonen
Workshops
Wednesday 30 - Thursday 31 October | Education Suite, The Tron
Dissident Bodies with Renata Carvalho - the award-winning artist and activist who plays Jesus in the Brazilian production, O Evangelho
Queen Jesus and Her Impact in Brazil - A Journey Towards Freedom with Natalia Mallo - director and translator of O Evangelho
Voice with Susan Worsfold, director of The Gospel and Nadine George Voice Work practitioner, for which she is one of only 14 accredited teachers worldwide
The Gospel According to Queer Theory | Late night queer cabaret
Friday 1 November, 10pm-late | Mono, Glasgow | Find out more
Glasgow’s best loved queer cabaret makes a special outing for Queen Jesus’s 1oth anniversary celebrations, foregrounding a heavenly showcase of trans, non-binary and GNC performers from across Scotland.
Expect a heady combination of music, performance art, spoken word, comedy, drag and variety with a focus on the subversive and experimental.
A vital, beating heart of Scotland’s queer community, Queer Theory offers a stage and supports countless upcoming queer performers, bringing many beautiful people together every month.
Find Queer Theory each month Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow, proudly showcasing LGBT+ talent since April 2016.
10th anniversary commemorative book launch
Sunday 3 November, 2.30pm | GoMA, Glasgow | Book
Published by Stewed Rhubarb Press. This unique collection, brought together as part of The Gospel's tenth anniversary celebrations, reflects on the play’s remarkable impact, resilience and enduring relevance, combining Jo's groundbreaking play with contributions from Queen Jesus Productions company members and the family of artists and activists that have come together over the last decade in support of the play. As well as perspectives from those affected by original production in 2009, the artists at the forefront of the campaign for trans rights in Brazil, a selection of academic, queer and spiritual perspectives and a foreword from Jo herself.
queer timɘs school print with GoMA
Queen Jesus Productions was delighted to partner with GoMA on the mini-season- having supported the original development and reading of the play in 2009 for sh[OUT] – through the commissioning of new work for the collection as part of the queer timɘs school prints series. queer timɘs school prints is a conceptual artwork originally commissioned from the artist, curator and educator Jason E Bowman, with the first iteration of prints now in Glasgow Museums’ collection.
Following the performances, talks and events as part of the mini-season, a roundtable discussion was held at GoMA. From this discussion an artist brief and call out was put together by the cast of Untitled 2009 and representatives from Queen Jesus Productions UK and Brazil. We were also super excited to select Nat Walpole as the artist from this call out. They submitted a considered approach to the brief and the selection of their work resonated with discussions held in the queer times school in 2018 – so was a perfect choice.
Nat proposed a comic strip ‘following character whose identities intersect across the borders of gender and sexuality … using layers to explore different versions of oneself … the overlapping colours and symbols demonstrating the ways people navigate the world, the inner realities, their bodies and the prejudices they encounter.’ They were able to access the conversations from the mini-season and roundtable discussion and will produce the poignant and beautiful work below as a risograph edition for queer timɘs school prints. A print from the edition will enter the collection as part of this work, along with two others – one for the set that Glasgow City Council Education department use in secondary schools and the other for Glasgow Museums Learning, who have a set that schools can borrow.
Shifting Masks 2020
Nat Walpole
Further discussions led to a decision to ask Tiu Makkonen, who documented the programme, if she would be interested in proposing a photograph from the documentation for queer timɘs school prints as well. We were delighted when she agreed and through a conversation with both the UK and Brazilian Queen Jesus teams decided on the photograph below which captures the radiant Jo Clifford and Renata Carvalho in the Tron Theatre where it all began over 10 years ago.
Renata Carvalho & Jo Clifford, in The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven 2019
Tiu Makkonen
