Gay Camberwell

It’s all good news for Camberwell at the moment.  New art installations, millions coming to Burgess Park and a tube by 2012.  (I know the last bit of news has been around for a while, but it’s a choice between that and the fact that Teamwork hairdressers is to stay open.)  Which is all very cheery.  We’ve been out and about in Camberwell even more than usual and had a very jolly week. 

A rotten day at work mid-week made a visit to La Luna compulsory. It was lovely to see that they had enough customers for it to feel buzzy (the same, sadly, cannot be said of two of the best restaurants in Camberwell – the Red Sea and Su-Thai).  No male couples this time, though, and so we assumed that the large numbers on our last visit was an aberration.  However, our first visit to Safa (which met with our approval) on Saturday night found us yet again gazing at two men having dinner together.  Sitting diagonally at a table for four, they didn’t look like a couple.  So it seems that the men of SE5 are so 21st century that they are comfortable dining in pairs. 

And we went to the Blue Elephant Theatre on Friday – it’s currently showing a lesbian play– The Soldier With No Name – which is a mix of puppetry, dance, physical theatre and storytelling.  With one of the cast in dungarees throughout the play, we were prejudiced in its favour from the beginning.  But the cast and production didn’t need to woo us with such temptations: it was well worth seeing anyway.  The story’s absorbing, being the story of two female French surrealists (Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore) and their resistance campaign against the Nazis in occupied Jersey.  The performers were all very good, and the puppetry was entrancing (so delicate and precise) - though we did wonder later what it added to the piece.  Unless it was intended to link in to the artists’ art…  Feeling ignorant, we decided that this was the case.

This week’s film at the Castle (XXY) was very popular which is very pleasing.  We didn’t originally intend to do weekly films, but the lovely Michael Twaits, the compere for the launch night party of Gay Camberwell, mis-heard me when I said “monthly”.  And once we’d heard him say “weekly”, it seemed a good idea and the rest is history...  He also committed Winston to providing free popcorn (this wasn’t a mis-hear on Michael’s part, but rather a moment of enthusiasm) and this makes me very happy.  (I fear I’m far too easily pleased.) 

Walking from one Camberwell venue to another this week, we’ve thinking about what to show in April.  How do Bound, Boys Don’t Cry, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Beautiful Thing sound?  Do let us know.  Particularly if you see us gazing at you in La Luna, or Safa, or some other restaurant, trying to work out if you’re part of the new contingent of metrosexual men in SE5…

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