Photograph by E. M. Parry

This lecture will be given via Zoom Webinar. Please book on this page and we will email you the live link 24 hours before the event.

In this online talk, SL Grange will share some of the ways in which they have been using improvisatory practices to meet and have a conversation with the Roaring Girl; Mary Frith aka Mal Cutpurse. By understanding Mary as (possibly) the first known drag king, SL Grange opens up playful and conversational routes to an anti-extractive queer historiography, in which the past might ‘do’ us as much as we do it. Taking place on stage as well as in various kinds of archives, including the researcher’s own body, this extempore methodology draws on queer theories of wildness and erotohistoriography, and offers creative encounters with the unruly dead. The talk will include opportunities for attendees to participate gently in some improvisatory work of their own (written, performed or whatever form you are comfortable with).

SL Grange (Ess) – is a theatre-maker, poet and doctoral researcher. Recent work includes A Note to Mary Frith, commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe for the Notes to Forgotten She-Wolves series; and of his family commissioned by Improbable for Fly the Flag 2020; and currently Wou D’Ulzecht, an audio-walk project with composer Catherine Kontz commissioned for European Capital of Culture 2022. She also creates performance work as The ELMS in partnership with artist E.M Parry. SL Grange is the winner of the Poetry Wales 2021 poetry pamphlet competition.