Chichester city councillor and writer Rhys Chant offsets media negativity about queerhood with a fun and upbeat piece for the Chichester Fringe.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Chichester Observer and Sussex
00:07Newspapers. Really lovely to speak again to Rhys Chant. Now Rhys, you've got a fantastic
00:11sounding show. You can judge shows by the title, can't you? And this is a really appealing
00:16one. Things a bright young queer can do. And it's going to be performing two performances
00:22in one day at the Old Courtroom Council House on June the 7th this year for the Chichester
00:28Fringe. And it's got such an interesting, challenging tagline, hasn't it? Queerhood is far harder
00:35than anyone gives you credit for. What does that mean? That was the starting point, was
00:40it? Yeah, it was the sort of the moment that I realised that I wanted to do the show was
00:47looking at a world that's, although accepting, has sort of moved back in time recently. And
00:54with a world sort of that's more vitriolic than ever, I think it's really important to
00:58find moments for queer joy. So all the things a bright young queer can do is hoping and striving
01:04to be an account of empowering young queer people and all the things that young queer
01:08people can get up to.
01:10So what are you wanting to say about queerhood?
01:14So I think with this piece and all the research I've done going around the country, sort of all
01:20of the hours spent in the car, spending nights on other people's sofas, cake, tea, coffee, all
01:26those lovely moments. Nice work.
01:28Yes. Well, I definitely want, what we're trying to say is that the community is stronger than
01:34it's ever been. That, you know, queerhood is empowering, that as a young queer person, you
01:39can do anything. And it's been really nice to hear the lived experiences of so many different
01:44people and to get to meet so many interesting queer people.
01:47And this is partly sort of said, sort of media images of queerhood, isn't it? You were saying
01:54that not too often queer people are seen as either hypersexual or deeply, deeply depressed,
01:59but that's not the reality.
02:00No, absolutely. And so we wanted to, I wanted to make a piece that was more about the collective
02:06queer experience, especially of a generation sort of post section 28 and of a queerhood after,
02:13sort of, you know, gay marriage and all the Equality Act and everything. So yeah, it's
02:19striving to sort of challenge the concepts that queer people in media are always either
02:24hypersexual or depressed, and actually to sort of show a whole cacophony of experiences
02:28that young queer people go through.
02:30And the lovely thing is that at the end of this, when it's performed in London, you will
02:34end up with a master's degree.
02:36I will indeed. Yes, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Yeah.
02:45Brilliant. Yeah.
02:46Well, congratulations on it. It sounds fantastic. It's in the Old Courtroom, two performances,
02:51June the 7th at the Chichester Fringe. Good luck with it, Rhys, and lovely to see you.
02:56Thank you very much.
02:58Lovely to speak, you too.