When queer folks meet they tell their stories. When queer folks meet in a theatre, they tell their stories in public.
Turan Ali’s award winning show format brings four people to an empty stage to share stories that are deep, profound and funny. Each tells one or two stories lasting 8 to 10 minutes and in between these larger stories are shorter stories – anecdotes, one-liners or some other kind of storiette that only queer folks know. The twist is that in the interval, members of the audience are given cards and pens and invited to contribute their own stories which will be used inbetween the stories of the second half. And variety comes in the guests that Turan Ali invites. On this occasion, one was a poet, one was a stand-up comedian and one was a singer. Each used their own preferred medium to amplify the stories that they were telling.
First up was Eliott Simpson who self describes as an eccentric, autistic, asexual comedian. Rapid-fire jokes came pretty thick and fast, endangering the storytelling format just a little. But he was clearly at home in front of a microphone and in his element, relentlessly educating the audience about the experiences they were laughing with him about.
Eyve was the performer who brought singing into the evening, telling her stories and then singing to an electronic backing track. She has an immense voice in both senses of the word. Her stories took people into the bitterness of the asylum system and the pathos of religious hatred coming from someone you love but sprinkled both with the joy of fresh young love – love that hasn’t yet discovered its own labels.
Up next was Gray Crosbie a Glasgow-based trans poet. He had a delicious rhythmic story about stealing plant cuttings from Grindr hook-ups and then ending up with a richly verdant window sill of half-forgotten late night memories. In the second half, he conveyed his delight in having picked a male saint’s name as his confirmation name years before working out that one day he’d need to choose another male name to use every day.
Turan Ali himself clearly revels in what he does with this evening. There’s an angry passion in him. This is a man who must know he’s onto a good thing. Queer stories come with passion, intrigue and delight in a life that is still often hidden from the mainstream. Putting those stories into the spotlight is a sure-fire guarantee of a good night out.
Apart from an early rather tired micro-story about Dolly Parton failing to win a Dolly Parton lookalike competition which had surely been told to death to and by every member of the audience in the days since her death, the stories here felt mostly fresh and new. Full marks to the audience member who offered a one-line story about meeting the homophobic father of an Edinburgh friend, in a gay sauna in Glasgow.
The link between standup and storytelling is obvious. The danger in this format is that the two demand to get married and fuse into one. A little distance between the two allows more of the sadness, joy and wonder of rainbow lives to be seen and heard.
This performance didn’t get a great audience and hadn’t been particularly well advertised. However, a further twist to the format is that Turan Ali does not invite guests back to participate until a year has passed but there’s another Queer Folks’ Tales right at the end of October. Different performers, different stories. The next one is on Halloween – well worth letting it cast its spell.