Event type: Theatre

An Evening with Dross | Homotopia Festival 2025

7:30pm

In a time defined by division – what might happen if we allow ourselves space to dream? How do the stories we tell to & about ourselves shape the world around us? How might the voices of our queer ancestors forge our future?
Having cut her teeth across the UK cabaret circuit developing a unique performance style that blends spectacle with deep vulnerability, these are the questions at the heart of Dross’ solo theatrical debut. It’s a show about radical empathy, deep listening & re-membering ourselves.

Weaving a thread that is equal parts biography and fantasy – AN EVENING WITH DROSS is a kaleidoscopic multimedia patchwork that seamlessly blends film, physical theatre and lip-sync – ‘elevating the craft of Drag into a place of collective hallucination’.
Dross’ physical performance is the locus of this work, acting as a conduit for forgotten and familiar voices from queer activism & cultural history. Here, the Drag Queen is repositioned as a living archive; a way-finder in a constellation of contradictions.
Audiences have called it a ‘masterclass in the art of lip-sync’, a ‘queer séance’, an ‘intelligent and thoughtful reflection on LGBTQ+ identity and community’ & ‘beautiful, smart and hilarious in waves.’

The project was developed with the kind support of FACT Studio/Labs & Homotopia QueerCore artist development programme. First scratched as part of the Homotopia QueerCore showcase at the Everyman Theatre, & then at QUARRY, Liverpool in August 2023. Since then, working iterations/excerpts of the show have been presented at Shakespeare North Playhouse, Preston Fringe, & at None of the Above Cabaret: In Conversation with Travis Alabanza.

The completed work has been presented as part of Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival, The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University & at The Divine, London. We are looking to tour the work nationally from Autumn 2025 into 2026.
DROSS is a neurodiverse, queer performance maker, activist, producer and scholar, living and working in the Liverpool City Region. She was Director & Co-Producer for EAT ME (Liverpool’s radical queer performance collective & production house) from 2019 to 2024. Most recently she starred in Katarzyna Perlak’s art film The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly presented for Liverpool Biennial 2025.

She has produced, hosted and presented work in an array of queer performance contexts nationally – including galleries, clubs, festivals & theatres. In 2023 she hosted the Liverpool Eurovision Finale party at Pier Head for 20,000 revellers. She has recently produced the sixth month drag and queer performance artist development/incubator project Pink Pony Club, for emerging queer performance makers in Liverpool nightlife.

Her contemporaries (many of which also EAT ME alumni) include Sharon le Grand, Lasana Shabazz, Dan Chan, Midgitte Bardot, Franz Genau & Auntie Climax.
She is interested in horror, camp, magic & liberation. She is an interdisciplinary magpie, with wanton disregard for genre & form.

 

CREATIVE TEAM:
Devised and performed by Dross
Dramaturgy: Alice Holland
Script Advisor: Brendan Curtis
Musical Elements: Emily Meghan Lansley & Alex Germains
Animation Elements: Laura Spark
Costuming: Lizzie Biscuits
Show Manager(s) Danielle Scharpf & Evyn Seaton-Mooney

Claire Beerjeraz | Creative’Pool Workshop

6-8pm

Join writer Claire Beerjeraz for an inspiring creative writing workshop exploring the themes of home and belonging. Claire will guide participants through a series of prompts that they used in the development of their show Rooted, offering a hands-on opportunity to write, reflect, and create.

You’ll also gain insight into Claire’s creative process, with a chance to see how these writing exercises helped shape Rooted and their wider theatre practice. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, this workshop invites you to connect with your own stories and discover new ways of telling them.

The Signalman

7:30pm
From the Producers of The Hammer and Helena and Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse, Artsgroupie return with a tale of winter terror, an acclaimed adaptation of the much-loved Charles Dickens supernatural classic, The Signalman

“As solitary a place as ever I saw…It struck a chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.”

 A ghostly figure has visited the signalman twice already, each time preceding a terrible disaster. When the apparition appears for the third time, it’s up to the signalman to decode its meaning and prevent another catastrophe.

A gripping slice of gothic horror from Charles Dickens, regarded as the greatest horror story ever written.

In the tradition of classic oral storytelling, a lantern and two players is all that is needed to tell the spine tingling tale of the Signalman.

“The Signalman is a powerful and haunting story about survivor’s guilt and isolation – something we believe will be of striking relevance to our audience following the pandemic. Our inability to control events around us can be more frightening than any ghost, as Dickens knew well. He wrote from experience, a survivor of the Staplehurst railway disaster – events that both inspired and haunted the author.”

David Griffiths, Writer and Director

ArtsGroupie CIC blends its acclaimed portrayal of historical events with a dramatic and frightening narrative worthy of their annual sell out performances of Ghost Stories for Christmas, which have been featured in the New York Times.

ArtsGroupie CIC aims to promote and provide access to the arts, particularly in areas with limited access, and to champion North West talent.

They develop and tour their own theatre and music productions.
Facilitate educational workshops in creative writing for both adults and children.
Offer heritage walking tours, such as the “Liver Bird Safari” and “William Roscoe Tour”, to raise funds for community initiatives.
Deliver free community events, including workshops, exhibitions, and performances.
Producing and promoting work that champions women, working class stories, and the LGBTQA+ community.

www.artgroupie.org

 

David Griffiths

David Griffiths is a writer and director from Liverpool. His plays Excess Baggage (“unmistakably authentic” Liverpool Echo) and Saving Grace (“brilliantly scripted… It’s impossible to fault a play that’s conceived and brought about with such sophistication” Fringe Guru) were originally written for Liverpool’s Write Now Festival before transferring to Edinburgh, Buxton and Camden. He recently directed an adaption of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four (“a powerful production” North West End) and is currently collaborating with ArtsGroupie CIC on their annual Ghost Stories For Christmas.

 

Rooted

6:00pm
 

Claire has been told to ‘go back home’ countless times, but where is home for them? An African island they’ve only visited once? Their parents’ unrecognisable house, falling apart in an increasingly gentrified London borough? Between memories of their childhood home, shaded by parental mental health difficulties; and memories of Liverpool, laced with dead friends and racial abuse, Claire doesn’t know if they’ll ever feel truly rooted. This darkly comic solo show celebrates intersectional identities, marginalised communities, and the unconventional ways that we find home.

 

Creative:

Claire Beerjeraz: Writer, Performer, Co-Director

Marcella Rick: Co-Director

Eleanor Randle: Movement Director

 

www.clairebeerjeraz.com

Stella

Stella is a high-octane, one-act comedy that brings to life the whirlwind journey of a young woman navigating her early twenties in and around the vibrant streets of Liverpool. Written by Robert Farquhar and performed by the dynamic Kalli Tant, this fast-paced solo show is a masterclass in multi-rolling, with the actor seamlessly portraying everyone from family to strangers—each character adding depth and complexity to Stella’s world.

Stella is a sharp-witted, restless soul, trapped in a turbulent relationship with her distant father and a constant search for meaning. Her inability to say no often lands her in absurd and chaotic situations, while her tough exterior masks a deeper vulnerability. Set against the backdrop of Liverpool’s bustling cityscape, the play moves through lively scenes that highlight both her independence and isolation. With relentless energy, Stella questions life, love, and her own identity, all while refusing to settle.

Directed by Chris Tomlinson, Stella is a compelling exploration of youth, self-discovery, and the fierce drive to keep going, no matter what. Wildly funny, brutally honest, and relentlessly real, Stella is a show that gurantees to keep you laughing and gasping in equal measure!

 

The Team 

Robert Farquhar – Writer

Kalli Tant – Performer

Chris Tomlinson – Director

 

Spooky Tales

2pm & 6pm

Perfect for brave children aged 9+ and their families.

From the Team that brought you When Another Dragon Roars

Do you enjoy stories about ghosts, witches, and things that go bump in the night? You do?

Then join Edward and Martha Creep as they share terrifying tales that will make you gasp, gawp, and grin.

Please say you’ll come, we’re dying to meet you!

 

Featuring Altered Scale Theatre’s outstanding puppetry and Petite Ullaloom’s unique storytelling, Spooky Tales is a Halloween treat!

Ugly Bucket Creative’pool Workshop

6pm-8pm

Join the multi award winning Ugly Bucket in a workshop exploring the endless possibilities of verbatim and devising.

Verbatim is a key feature of Ugly Bucket’s work to date; Personal testimony can be a dynamic tool to tell honest stories and devise exciting, perspective changing productions.

Together we can focus on how we can care for the communities we bring into our work, and explore different forms to show these stories on stage.

Participants will devise with verbatim from previous Ugly Bucket productions, learning more about documentary style theatre as we create.

Waiting For Godot

Matthew Kelly and George Costigan star in a new staging of Samuel Beckett’s classic play – in which absolutely nothing happens.

Set in a shifting, timeless landscape, Waiting for Godot follows two men, Vladimir and Estragon, as they wait for someone who may never come. As they pass the time with scraps of conversation, moments of tenderness and flashes of dark humour, their story becomes a moving reflection on what it means to keep going in a world that rarely offers answers.

Beckett’s timeless play endures as one of the defining works of the 20th century and returns to our stage in all its strange, funny and heart-breaking brilliance. Darkly comic and deeply moving, Waiting for Godot is a profound exploration of what it means to be human – even when the waiting never ends.

Pixiematosis – The Object Project

7:30pm
Everything was perfect in the midnight garden. The flowers grew, the fairies flew, the grobbity  grobbits danced a merry dance in the twinkly moonlight. Then one day, without warning, the  deranged gardener from next door threw the shed door wide, and let loose the massive-evil pitchfork-of-doom!

PIXIEMATOSIS is a happy/sad tale of tiny extraordinary creatures living in a nocturnal paradise  who realise, far too late, that they are being exploited for a distinctly sinister purpose.

Featuring sqwonky puppets, odd-automata and a slew of charity-shop rejects, PIXIEMATOSIS is  not unlike watching a lost episode of Bagpuss, filmed by the Tales of the Unexpected crew… or  witnessing Fingermouse being folded up and used to stop a pub table wobbling.

Come along, be charmed, be appalled; get swept up in the existential madness of it all, Plus Meet the puppets on stage after the performance!

 

“We loved Pixiematosis and people still talk about how brilliant it was.”

Jack Robson – Crediton Arts Centre

 

“There is a lot of love in this show. Surprises delightful and traumatic. Laughter and horror. I highly recommend it.”

Audience member – Ashburton Arts Centre

 

 

The Team

Marc Parrett – Writer, director, designer, performer

Nicole Colbert – Director, technician, creative support

Ione Vaughan – Associate Producer

MOONFACE

Shady billionaires make plans to colonise and mine the solar system, and our nearest celestial neighbour has something to say about it.   A clowning show performed by Meg Hodgson with live sound from Livvy Lynch, MOONFACE is a funny and exuberant love letter to our rocky satellite that explores what it means to be human. Expect burlesque and drag-style numbers, testimony from survivors of human-made disasters, and movement inspired by the gravitational interactions between Earth and moon.