Tag Archives: LGBTQ+

Artist Spotlight: The Black Smock Band


Daedalus Theatre Company and the Black Smock Band have worked together on many projects. You may recognise our director, Paul Burgess, as one of the members of the band! After years of collaborations, we think it’s time to spotlight the band in their own right. Grab a cuppa and settle in because it’s a read as heart-warming as the band’s music, which incidentally, you can hear live – and sing along with – on Wednesday 22nd April 2026 at Camden People’s Theatre. Book your tickets for QUEER REVOLUTIONARY SINGALONG now:

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice.

Andy Bannister: In addition to being a musician, I’m a visual artist and a tutor working in higher education. I teach on a fine art course where I mainly work with students who focus on sculpture and combined media- this reflects what I do when I’m in my studio. In my current work, I’m exploring the impact of science and technology on culture and society, with a focus on the widespread civil opposition to the nuclear arms race during the Cold War period. There’s a crossover here with my activities as a musician, in terms of my interest in the role of folk music within protest movements and the emphasis on stories of resistance within the folk tradition.

New Creative Nature Workshop for Young People (16-25) in Romford

Our work continues in Havering with Kaleidoscope, a grassroots organisation that has been working with young LGBTQ+ people in Romford since 2022. 

Often queer people have been called unnatural, but nature is filled with wonder and ambiguity. Take the most apparently basic animal, the fruit fly; researchers have found that fruit flies have metafemale, metamales and intersex gender identities, and bisexuality. One species of fungus has 23,000 genders. Gay penguins have been well documented in zoos and the wild. Starfish are asexual.

Announcing New Daedalus Production and New Partnership at Exciting Queer Festival in South London!

After two R&D phases and more than two years in development, we’re finally ready to share Dysbiosis, our latest theatre project — and we’re doing it as part of the 96 Festival on its tenth anniversary.

We’re thrilled to bring this work-in-progress performance and exhibition to Omnibus Theatre in Clapham, South London, marking an exciting moment for Daedalus as we step outside our usual East London base to join this landmark festival in a vibrant new context.

Dysbiosis is a queer-led, multimedia performance that unearths the tangled connections between queerness, place, nature and environmental justice. Developed through collaboration with working class, global majority and LGBTQ+ Londoners, it weaves together original music, spoken word, performance and visual storytelling to explore how we live in and with the natural world.

Callout: East Music – a new project

Musicians! You’re invited to East Music: Song and Tune Exchange Session at Poplar Union on Saturday 23rd March, 4PM-6.30PM

Bring your instruments and voices along with songs or tunes from across the world to play, sing and share.

This is a free, friendly and inclusive session for players of all levels of experience – Global Majority* and LGBTQ+ music makers are particularly welcome. The session will be led by East musicians Andy Bannister, Michele Chowrimootoo and Paul Burgess.

This is a new strand of our East Storytelling project, and we hope to extend it to further sessions. All being well, there’ll also be an opportunity to share the results with a live audience later in the year.