Rattigan's Back!
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NEWSLETTER \ Issue 28 \ Summer 2011 Janice Perry 1980s , 1979 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. by Used Foundation. Mapplethorpe Robert © 1979 , Erik Borg Erik RATTIGAN’S EXPOSURE IN BRIGHTON: JANICE PeRRY AT ZAP BACK! ● Despite the controversy that Robert une 2011 saw the centenary of Terence Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter Lyle and Ridley Brian Mapplethorpe’s photographs caused in Rattigan’s birth. Rattigan was the most the 1980s, I’d never heard of him until Jsuccessful British playwright of the mid 20th lesbian stand-up comedian, Janice Century. His first hit wasFrench Without Tears in Perry, came over from the States. At the 1936, while the 1940s brought among others The time, senator Jesse Helms (America’s Winslow Boy and The Browning Version. The plays equivalent of Mary Whitehouse) was were exceptionally well written – structured and witty MAPPLETHORPE: kicking up a stink about Mapplethorpe’s and usually concerned with morality and depth of work, to the extent that museums and feeling. In one the question is posed, “You know galleries were cancelling his exhibitions. what the real Vice Anglais is? It is not flagellation or EXPOSURE IN Sympathetic to his plight, and determined pederasty, or whatever the French think it is, it’s the to help out, Janice took out needle and inability to express emotion.” thread, made for herself the necessary Many of the plays had gay undertones, most EASTBOURNE addition for a show depicting well- notably Separate Tables where the Major is t his most controversial, Robert face. This certainly wasn’t a show of his most endowed, naked men and performed revealed as having had unspecified peccadilloes in Mapplethorpe photographed leather- sexually explicit work, his Self-portrait with a live version of Mapplethorpe’s work. a cinema. This was in the 1950s when homosexual A clad men indulging in S&M sex, and Bullwhip and Man in Polyester Suit were She had her all-women audiences in relationships could lead to imprisonment, blackmail full frontal nude shots of eye-wateringly well- notably absent. But if you were really looking stitches. My memory is of Janice at the and public disgrace. It was also a subject almost endowed black men. He became famous for for it there was probably just enough to Zap Club on Brighton’s seafront, in a little forbidden under the theatrical censorship operated these as well as iconic portraits of his artistic re-ignite the debate about public funding for black dress and fishnet tights, bright red by the Lord Chamberlain. Rattigan and his affluent contemporaries (Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, explicit/challenging art that his work sparked stilettos - with jacket and penis to match. upper-class lifestyle went out of fashion after Look Keith Haring) and the society figures of New York. during his lifetime. Not only were there over 60 She remembers… Back in Anger opened at the Royal Court in 1956. Terence Rattigan early 1950s He was Patti Smith’s lover in the early 1970s, photographs on display, but also a handful of “When I did the Mapplethorpe piece An assertive heterosexuality had arrived, sidelining living for some time at the famous Chelsea sculptures never seen before in a UK public that night, some people gasped, and the homosexual coterie of Binkie Beaumont’s Hotel, and was internationally regarded as a gallery. As well as a number of talks the Towner looked nervously around the room, circle that had dominated the theatrical world for major figure in photography during the 1980s. hosted a Studio 54 night, inspired by the because lesbians and penises were a long time. Rattigan carried on writing until his He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and died legendary New York nightclub that defined not supposed to be in the same room death aged 66 in 1977. His later work did deal a three years later. He sounds Especially poignant Mapplethorpe’s era. together. Then they broke into laughter, little more explicitly with gay themes but he never THANKS BE TO... like an unusual choice for a Eastbourne and a very beautiful moment. Sadly, just this considered ‘outing’ himself. ● Like (nearly) everyone else in this current and every contribution is welcome and was the self-portrait major retrospective exhibition homosexuality, how times past year I was asked not to do that piece Terry was a Brighton resident for a few years. In 1960 financial climate, we’re feeling the pips appreciated. This year’s star of the show, in Eastbourne, a seaside with a skull-headed have changed you may be at a women’s event in Germany, because his long-time lover Michael Franklin decided that sea air squeak but thanks to help and support from though, is Malcolm who has made a town with one of the highest walking cane... thinking. Once this would the presenters were afraid that some of would help him recovery from pneumonia. They moved funders and individuals we’re managing donation of £1,000 from a legacy he percentages of people over 65 in the region. have seemed inconceivable, with even the idea the women would be angered by the sight to a 7th floor flat in Embassy Court, Hove. Rattigan to keep afloat. In the last twelve months, received! In these uncertain times, when Given the subject matter surely Brighton raising enough influential eyebrows to prevent of my big brown schwanz.” hated it. The following year he rented it out and bought we’ve received a sum from Brighton & charities are going to the wall, we are would have seemed the obvious location. it from ever taking place. This thought had To see a recent version of this hilarious Bedford House at 79 Marine Parade. Frederick Ashton Hove City Council’s Small Grants budget, very grateful to him for sharing his good I’m guessing, but I strongly suspect it went plainly occurred to the curators at the Towner routine, look for “Janice Perry” at and Cuthbert Worsley were regular visitors. equal to about a third of our running costs, fortune with us. to Eastbourne to showcase the impressive too. On a wall opposite the entrance was a www.youtube.com. A new audience is discovering Rattigan in this while the newly operational Rainbow Fund - And let’s not forget everyone who saves Towner art gallery (owned jointly by the Tate small oil painting of an almost naked Constant Incidentally, in the early Eighties, Janice centenary year, with several highly-praised revivals set up by Gscene Magazine in conjunction us money by giving their professional and National Galleries of Scotland), which Lambert in 1927 by bisexual artist Christopher had a show at the Drill Hall in London, already. Most eagerly awaited is the Chichester with other local LGBT businesses and services for free or less than the going rate. opened in April 2009, as it a contains a large Wood, from the Towner’s permanent called Janice Perry and Friends. One of Festival Theatre’s celebration from July to September. administered by the Sussex Community We love you all. enough gallery space in which to display such collection. Alongside was a small card her friends was a lesser-known, Brighton- There are rehearsed readings of five of his plays and Foundation - has given us help towards the By the way, we have recently added to a extensive collection of Mapplethorpe’s work. explaining this wasn’t the first time Eastbourne based comedian – a slender sapling three full productions of others including The Deep cost of moving premises. our website the facility to make donations The photographs spanned his creative life had flirted with such scandal. Bless.Alf called Simon Fanshawe. Linda ([email protected]). Dickson Fraser by Designed 2011. Ourstory Brighton © Blue Sea, possibly his best piece of writing. Mark We rely heavily on gifts from individuals securely online using PayPal. You don’t and indeed his death. Especially poignant was need to have a PayPal account, just use the self-portrait with a skull-headed walking your credit or debit card. Look for the cane taken shortly before his death, the skull Brighton Ourstory PO Box 2861, Brighton BN1 1UN Visit us online at www.brightonourstory.co.uk DONATE button on our Home page and in sharper focus than Mapplethorpe’s own elsewhere on the website. Toupie (middle row, centre) with some of her MOVING ON! ambulance unit his time last year, as Brighton arduous task of moving several hundred heavy Ourstory looked forward to future boxes of archive material carefully, efficiently T months of creative work on a revised and with good humour. We’d like also to say edition of our 1992 classic Daring Hearts, how much we’ve appreciated the help and snug in our city-centre office at Mitre House, understanding of the manager and maintenance little did we know we would shortly be looking staff at Mitre House during the protracted for another home. Part of Mitre House is to negotiations on our new premises. We’ll miss become a hotel and our offices were wanted the waft of Tony’s brass polish and the gleaming as conference rooms. Little did we also stair rail. know that the Daring Hearts project would We’d like to take this opportunity to say be set back by the recession when British farewell and thank-you to three trustees who’ve Bookshops folded leaving our publisher, retired from the Brighton Ourstory board in the QueenSpark Books short of The Daring Hearts last year. Sally, was with us for funds. To new contributors project is not seven eventful years, in which who were expecting to see forgotten or she kept order and kept us their stories in print by now in abandoned but positive! She is now focussing the new edition, please accept on hold..