On June 3rd we returned to Walkley Community Centre to produce the second edition of our Drag King night, The Kingdom Come. This time the theme was ‘Holiday Camp’ and our audience and drag performers sure brought the tropical, gender bending vibes!
Adam All and Apple Derrieres, flamingo style.
The cabaret – style evening was hosted by Adam All and Apple Derrieres, scene superstars and founders of Boi Box London, and featured drag kings Romeo De La Cruz, Luke Warm, Oliver Assets and Oedipussi. They all brought their A Game and had us howling with laughter and delight in one heck of a fun filled evening!
Luke Warm remembered to pack his toothbrush...
We want to say a huge thank you to our audiences for supporting our event, and making SUCH stellar efforts with their own fancy dress.. And thanks to those who donated towards our collection for the End Period Poverty project. Once again, we’d like to thank our volunteers who are vital to making our events a success, and the Walkley Community Centre volunteers, and of course the performers for making it such an entertaining night. Check out the photos by Ndrika Anyika below. More photos can also be viewed by heading to our Facebook Page.
Nicely Nautical audience members.Oedipussi makes an entranceRomeo De La Cruz is.. The MaskApple Derrieres is oh so tropical!Oliver Assets living his Disney dreamAdam All. Pecs.Yass Queen! Yass King! Oedipussi lets his light shine..Andro and Eve in drag take to the stage..
Our fabulous audience!
What an outfit. Tropic like its hot queen.
Finally, host Apple Derrieres shows us ALL how to pose.
On Saturday 22nd April we hosted our first drag king workshop at One Space Sheffield. Adam All and Apple Derrieres travelled from London to deliver this special event, and help those attending bring forth their male alter ego’s through discussion, movement and makeup tutorials.
To be honest we really didn’t know what to expect, this being our first workshop event, and the fact that most of the participants had not been to any of our past events! But it was so wonderful to be in a room with women and non binary people really keen to learn about the art of drag, and up for performing in front of others!
The day started with introductions and why people had attended. We weren’t surprised that many had been introduced to drag through RuPaul, but were surprised to learn how many had never seen a drag king perform, either live or online. This made us realise how important putting on an event like THE KINGDOM COME, outside of London is. Adam and Apple started with a short history of drag kings, moved onto character anchors for a drag king, and then how to embody those characters through movement and acting exercises.
After a VERY delicious lunch by Fanfare, a plant – based pop up at Union Street, it was onto make – up and packing and strapping! Adam very generosuly shared the tips that helped transform their face and body into a masculine physique and then it was time to dance to some chosen tunes before the ‘draguation’ ceremony!
Drag King Draguation
Feedback we received from our participants has been overwhelmingly positive, and some of it made us cry (in a good way). Here’s a sample –
‘A great first-time introduction to genderplay in general, and specific character, makeup, and costume tricks. Very knowledgeable hosts’.
‘Dressing up and exploring gender is fun and today made me feel a little less worried’.
‘It was so fun and I loved how friendly and welcoming the space was, it felt totally okay to go over the top’.
The Sheffield Drag King Crew is ready to go with Adam All!
This event really reaffirmed why we make Andro and Eve events happen and cemented our resolve to make our events more accessible to everyone. On that note, we want to run a similar event, but we will be seeking funding in order to make pricing more accessible. We believe strongly that artists (especially women / queer people) should be paid for their time, and we want to build on the success of this day to create a sustainable model and an even better event. Lots of our participants said they wanted more opportunities to try out their newly developed characters…. So watch this space!
Thank you to Adam and Apple for sharing their knowledge and skills, and to our participants for being so supportive of one another and willing to get stuck in! Thanks also to One Space and Fanfare so their collaboration. It really helped us make it a special day. If we’ve wet your appetite for some drag king action, our next drag king night, The Kingdom Come #2 is on June 3rd. Tickets still available online or at Beeches of Walkley!
Why Andro and Eve? Let us tell you where our name comes from!
Well we love a pun for starters.. But this famous origin story of Adam and Eve called for a reworking in our minds… Something that reclaims the ‘woman’ from ‘man’ and says women can be so much more than the ancient stories we were told. Andro and Eve is a name that recognises women don’t need to be femme. We are androgynous, butch, dykes, tomboys. Also the divine feminine and ‘Eve’ character is also just as powerful as the archetypal man, masculine woman or genderfluid person.
We like our name because it acknowledges the blurring and broad spectrum of gender identity, and we seek to ensure our events and ethos are inclusive, and for us, queer community is about building a family outside of heteronormativity. We are about uniting different identities across race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and age. Lastly, our name was also chosen because we are keen that all women have a space they feel safe and free to explore queer culture, and break down some barriers that sadly, sometimes exist between different women and other marginalised genders.
Now we just need to remember all that next time we get asked about our name!
We were asked by the wonderful Moor Theatre Delicatessen last year to think of a film we’d like to programme as part of a festival to explore sex, sexuality and gender. The resulting festival Lets Talk About Sex Festival opened this week in Sheffield, and we’re very happy that as Andro and Eve we can represent for lesbian / queer women by presenting Carol.
But why Carol? Well. Although we’re not blessed with hundreds of films exploring lesbian sex and relationships, there were a few other options but none of them so clearly put across a woman’s experience of falling for another woman in such a stylish and emotionally resonant way. We saw Carol on its release in 2015 and were already fans of the book, The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, and frankly, we were blown away.
The two central performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are flawless, and the cinematography, costume and score, perfectly conjure the world in which these two exist. For those worrying that Todd Haynes film will ‘spoil’ the book, I remember being worried about this too. But somehow this film manages to capture the essence of the book, changing a few minor plot points, but making a piece of art that stands in its own right. Phyllis Nagy’s screenplay also allows us to see more clearly the world of Carol Aird, rather that in Highsmith’s novel, where we see the world through Therese’s eyes only. The film is richer, and more moving for this adaption.
Yes, there is sorrow in this film, but ultimately, Highsmith’s novel was groundbreaking in its treatment of a homosexual story where the characters (women too!) were allowed to have their hopeful ending. This bats against the still pervasive classic ‘lesbian must die’ trope in TV and film in a way that makes your heart sing.
We’re so excited to screen this film, transforming the Old Woolworths on The Moor (a fitting tribute to the way Therese and Carol meet!) into a homage to all things 1950’s. With cocktails, costumes galore and 1950’s music it will be an absolute dream to see this film back on a big screen again. We can’t wait!
Our thanks to Moor Theatre Delicatessen for their support in making this event happen, and SheFest Sheffield for placing this film in their weeklong programme to celebrate women as part of International Womens Day!
Rooney Mara as ‘Therese Belivet’ in Todd Hayne’s ‘Carol’. 2015
Since starting Andro and Eve in May 2016 we’ve been keen to promote the wonderful and surreal queer art of drag kings. Most people know what a drag queen is, and many will have watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, even if they have not been to a drag night. But when we’ve talked about drag kings to various people, they don’t seem sure what a drag king is, and definitely aren’t sure what a drag king night will involve.
So let us clear this up! A Drag King is a performer who impersonates male gender, usually in an exaggerated form. Often the person wearing the costume is a woman, but sometimes they might identify as non binary or male. The point is to poke fun at gender and entertain a crowd. The performers create acts based around singing, dancing, lip-syncing, comedy or a mixture of all or none of the above. It’s exciting because you never quite know what you’ll get with performers creating new acts all the time.
Adam All and Apple Derrieres founders of Boi Box.
We’ve programmed some of the best UK Drag Kings to perform in Sheffield on the 26th November in order to bring this art form to a new and wider audience. The London drag scene is thriving and drag kings grow more popular thanks to the efforts of Adam All and Apple Derrieres who set up Boi Box in London 3 years ago. Nights like ‘Kingdom’ in Brighton extend this network and are a great example of the queer community supporting one another. Its time Sheffield and South Yorkshire got its own slice of this queer and subversive art form with a night solely for drag kings, so we bring you THE KINGDOM COME. Grab a ticket and come down and enjoy the sparkliest, silliest and most surreal night you’ll have for a while!
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Adam All and Apple Derrieres founders of Boi Box.
