Homotopia Festival 2023
Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
Liverpool’s longest-running LGBTQ+ arts and culture festival, Homotopia returns with its 20th anniversary edition. For three weeks this November, the festival will bring a cutting-edge programme of performances, screenings, workshops, live music and conversation to the city.
With a focus on queer history and heritage, the festival theme for 2023 will be ‘Gods and Monsters’ and festival-goers can expect to see circus performances, cabaret and live music alongside theatre, talks, workshops and family events.
The festival will bring a cutting-edge variety of performances, screenings, workshops, live music and conversation to the city.
With festival events exploding across multiple spaces in the city, this year’s venues include Unity Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Invisible Wind Factory, FACT, Open Eye Gallery, the Museum of Liverpool, Granby Winter Gardens and Williamson Tunnels.
The festival launches on 11 November with a raucous pro-wresting drag and cabaret night in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. Clash of the Titans will see wrestlers and Queer cabaret Fist Club bring a fierce amalgamation of comedy, drag and live wrestling to the opening party of Homotopia.
Theatrical highlights of the festival include Queer icon and living legend David Hoyle.
Theatrical highlights of the festival include Queer icon and living legend David Hoyle with his critically acclaimed show, The Ten Commandments (Unity Theatre, 17 November); a compelling and lyrical autobiographical show, Black Sheep (Unity Theatre, 15 November) by performer Livia Kojo Alour exploring Blackness and LGBTQIA+ identity, and The Chosen Haram (Invisible Wind Factory, 16 November), an extraordinary physical theatre and gravity-defying circus show examining themes of sexuality, faith, addiction and human connection.
We love that the festival also offers a platform for emerging artists to showcase work-in-progress performances.
We’re also championing Liverpool’s fearless and fabulous drag cabaret EAT ME, who will bring fantasy, sin and pleasure to the historic Williamson Tunnels for a full weekender of club nights, art and theatre (24 – 26 November).
Alongside critically acclaimed and already established work, we love that the festival also offers a platform for emerging artists to showcase work-in-progress performances. A beloved festival of Liverpool, be sure to check out the full programme of events happening at Homotopia via the link below.
