Bad Bitch Cabaret Vol. I - III
A late night immersive party featuring cabaret, live music and DJs promoting emerging female and non-binary artists.
In a witching corner of sparkles and seduction
Please do come join us for a special production
Take a seat my dear, in the waiting room for hell
You might as well my dear, it's not like you tripped and fell.
So we invite you to come and join our Bad Bitch Cabaret
Where the banished, condemned and powerful can all come out to play
They'll be a variety of dancers, speakers and performances galore
And there's no better place to boogie than on hell's dancefloor…
CREATIVE TEAM
Creative Directors: Scarlett Spicer & Lucy Laverty
Creative Producer: PJ Cunningham
Poster Design: Kate Ireland
Photos Captured by Lily Brittain - @lilyjbrittainfilm
VOL I
EveBad Bitch Cabaret: Welcome To Hell @ TriBeCa, Gay Village, Manchester (9th December 2021)
Live Performances - Sugar Bum Fairy and Cristina Catania Flores, Eleanor Haigh, Cecilia Alfonso-Eaton, PJ Cunningham, Judas Darkholme, Lauren Ellis Stretch, Martha Jamieson, Kate Ireland, laedybirrd and Cake Boi
DJs - Miss Bad B International, Haz & Es, Ayse & Pink Armadillo and Selectors Support Resident: Tom Ato
VOL II
Bad Bitch Cabaret: Welcome Back To Hell @ The Brewers, Gay Village, Manchester (30th June 2022)
Live Performances - Duac Drag, Imogen Chillington, Sophia Rosen-Fouladi, Sunday Mourning, Bona Dea, Lauren Ellis Stretch and Phobia
DJs - Miss Bad B International and Selectors Support Resident: Tom Ato
Photos Captured by Chloe Townsend Williams - @chloetownsendwilliams
VOL III
Bad Bitch Cabaret: The Baddest Of Them All @ Wilsons Den, Northern Quarter, Manchester (18th November 2022)
Volunteer Managers - Rosa Hallam Fryer and Elenaor Haigh
Stage Manager - Elle Deliah
Volunteers -
Live Performance - Knitwear, Imogen Chillington, Kate Ireland and Leila Malik Women from Iran, Miss Feugo and Sister Nancy Pagan, Vincetta Vaudeville, Judas Darkholme & Night People
DJs - PHEE, Ayse and Miss Bad B
Photos Captured by Kit - @kitwaah
VOL I
SO LA STARS
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Performer
Cake Boi [noun]: a disco dancing, Oscar Wilde reading Streisand ticket holding friend of Dorothy. For example: ‘Oh Brendon? Yeah he is 100% a Cake Boi’
FANCCCY A SLICCCEEEE!!! Oh wait, has that catchphrase been taken already?
Cake Boi (they/them) is a twisted Cbeebies presenter with a love for camp and horror this drag is neither king or queen … let’s go with drag THING! From hyperpop to musical theatre ballads this thing loves to lip-sync, expect gags, props and a whole lotta pancakes!
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Performer
Cecilia Alfonso-Eaton (she/her) loves writing and performing poetry as well as songs!
In the summer of 2021, Cecilia had the pleasure of participating in a performed reading of the play in development at the time called 'My Uncle is Not Pablo Escobar' at the Paines Plough roundabout event in Brixton. Both Cecilia and the show later went to Brixton House for a months run in June 2023. The play centers around Latinx representation and this is a topic Cecilia is really passionate about exploring in theatre as well as other forms of social activism.
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Performer
Eleanor Haigh (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and creative. Her projects so far involve writing, performing, devising, dancing and choreographing.
Eleanor is all about having a good time and sharing/making art as a collective that serves a purpose to educate and celebrate. To her, theatre is a place where she can get inspiration from her peers and find magic in front of her.
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Performer
Crawling from the depths of hell is the camp vamp Judas Darkholme (they/them)! A culmination of beauty and horror, Judas’ high energy performances bring the dead back to life. This non-binary mutant shapeshifter is inspired by macabre and gothic beauty, punk attitudes and the holy trinity ... the sugababes so, please, throw your silver pieces out for Judas and don’t leave them hanging - they’re truly horrific. Amen!
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Hosts
Juicy Rebelle (she/her) and Flaming June (she/her) were the hots of this House of So La Flair’s first ever Bad Bitch Cabaret. These to know how to invite you to come and take a seat in hell’s waiting room and let the sins begin …
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Performer
Kate Ireland (she/her) is writer, performer and visual artist from Glasgow. Kate has spent her whole life coping with a brain fog of tangled ideas, and spoken word seems to be the most direct medium for her to splurge these thoughts on stage in an attempt to make sense of them. Kate likes to focus on issues of childhood, empathy, mental health, capitalism and the mundane.
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Performer
laedybirrd (they/she) is an interdisciplinary performer, creating in the intersections of activism, education and healing. They believe in the power of words, movement and sound vibrations, and wish to wield them for powerful incantations. Come along and find laedybirrd to partake in spell-casting…
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Performer
Lauren Ellis-Stretch (she/her) is a theatre-maker, playwright, comedienne based in Manchester. She studied MA in playwriting at the University of Manchester. Lauren’s early infatuation with Ms Darbus (High School Musical) began in 2006 and holds strong to this day; with her Bad Bitch Vol I performance being titled 'Darbus the (Winter) Musicale.
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Performer
Martha Jamieson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist - her specialisms are writing, performing, and producing. She’s passionate about art that uses its platform to instigate positive change. Martha performed ‘Fragments of Self Love’ on the So La Stage.
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Performer
PJ Cunningham (she/her) is an all round creative woman who's currently embarking on small scale world domination in the creative world! So watch this space babycakes.
peej threw some bad bitch energy with her monologue 'Fumbling.' A performance full of self reflection, a touch of self loving, references to her amazing wanks alongside some bad bitch vulnerability.
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Performer
Sugar Bum Fairy (she/her) is a writer that will tickle your fancies with her words if you let her ;) Before Bad Bitch Cabaret Vol I, she hadn’t shared much of what she writes, let alone performed it in front of an audience but she was here for it (and smashed it). In her freetime Sugar Bum Fairy likes to get her tits out when she can and overthink.
Sugar Bum Fairy performed with her fellow bad bitch Cristina who accompanied her writings and poems with music!
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DJ
Ayse (she/her) is a DJ placing that euphoric feeling of elation first and foremost. She likes to select music that has this uplifting quality, be that underground house, old school or new wave garage, rave, breaks or jungle. In a post-pandemic world, she’s taking every opportunity she can to expand on her craft.
Ayse is a very strong advocate for the promotion and support of female DJ’s – she took part in the play ‘What Does It Mean To You’ in both Manchester (2021) and Edinburgh (2022). Each performance of the show Ayse performed a monologue explaining the importance of women DJ’s “just going for it” and not letting the male dominance throw you off, because there are some sick female DJ’s out there – but not nearly enough. Ayse laid down some seriously bad bitch beats for this cabaret’s dancefloor.
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DJs
Hailing all the way from Chorlton, Ez (she/her) & Haz (he/him) are a dynamic duo who played a mixed bag of goodies for us on hell’s dancefloor.
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DJ
Alongside his best mate, Tom Bass (he/him) co-runs the charity night Selectors Support, as well as playing gigs in both Ancoats and the Northern Quarter.
Tom played an upbeat and energetic set. Funk and italo, garage and electro. Some fun tunes and singalong bangers are always expected when Toms on decks.
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DJ
Bad Bitch Cabaret Vol I marked Miss Bad B International (she/her) being back out for the first time in a while. Miss Bad B International served us the soundtrack of our wildest dreams.
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DJ
Emily, a.k.a DJ Pink Armadillo (she/her) was new to the scene when she performed at Bad Bitch, as was her name. In fact, she picked it after being shown a picture of a pink fairy armadillo the other week before she had to sub,it this bio. If you haven’t yet familiarised yourself with what this incredible creature looks like, she strongly urges you to get on Google images right now. Mother nature is a wonderful thing! And so are bad bitches!!!
Pink Armadillo provided a bad bitch extravaganza set full of mega femme tunes only.
VOL II
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Performer
Bona Dea (she/her) performed the ‘Ana Suromai.’ Performing alternative burlesque and lip sync number, Bona Dea transformed the space by taking an ancient female fertility ritual to the hypnotic state of glorious and grotesque hedonism.
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Performer
Lauren Ellis-Stretch (she/her) is a playwright, performer, arts facilitator, and theatre-maker from Wales. Following her much-acclaimed production of ‘Darbus the (winter) Musicale’ last November at our first Bad Bitch Cabaret Lauren was overjoyed to return to hell’s waiting room. For VOL II Lauren came back with a piece titled ‘Listen’ inspired by the legendary 2008 X-Factor final duet between Alexandra Burke and Beyoncé. The piece was an exploration of what it means to feel like you’ve arrived: from manifestation to power activation. And, who better to demonstrate our power claimed than the baddest bitch in the game (and Alexandra Burke)?
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Performer
Sophia Rosen Fouladi (she/they) is a London based Creative and Actor whose work focuses on community and identity. For their debut poetry reading for So La Flair, Sophia shared some of her poems about her baddest bitches - the people who make them who they are.
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DJ
Co-host of Manny based charity night Selectors Support, Tom Ato (he/him) knows how to flip crabby patty party poppers and fry up funky frequencies.
VOL III
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Performer
Returning to hell we had one of our baddest bitches; writer and actor Imogen Chillington (she/her). Imogen performed a series of poems that are observational in their discussion of the world as well as politically driven. Exploring the relationship between the individual and the state and how the cost of living crisis affects the relationship with the body. All in a bad bitch way.
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Performer
Returning to the gates of hell was our fiery Kate Ireland (she/her). This bad bitch is a writer, artist and performer from Glasgow. Kate is interested in the effects of modern systems of productivity and ego politics and how they make people become disaffected. Wanting pure connection above all else. She’s also obsessed with reality TV and really mundane shit. Kate performed some spoken wordy bits exploring rest, discomfort and her struggle to relate to femininity.
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Performer
Duac Drag (they/them) is the drag version of your GCSE art project: overly pretentious, unnecessarily angsty, and held together by Pritt Stik glue.
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Performer
Imogen Chillington (she/her) is an Actor/ Writer who generally works within the playwriting medium. Her work often explores the singular female voice and ways of exploring the female experience through an array of characters. She performed a section of poetry about the uncertainty of growing up, the aches and pains of emotionally ageing. In all it’s bad bitch sad bitch glory.
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Performer
PHOBIA (they/them) is a surreal drag supervillain from Manchester known for their high concept lip syncs exploring queerness, horror and spirituality in weird and wonderful ways. Starting out in 2019 just before the pandemic, PHOBIA has evolved from a young drag artist struggling to fit into a cis-focused scene into a genderless alt phenomenon performing across the North, hosting balls and consistently competing and shaking up the drag scene.
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DJ
Miss Bad B (she/her) is the baddest of them all. Hailing her name from our very first cabaret; Miss Bad B has nabbed herself four residencies with local radio stations and collective 5 months since her debut. MBB knows how to bring the house down.
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Hosts
Juicy Rebelle (she/her) and Flaming June (she/her) were the hots of this House of So La Flair’s first ever Bad Bitch Cabaret. These to know how to invite you to come and take a seat in hell’s waiting room and let the sins begin …
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Performer
Sunday Mourning (she/they) is Liverpool’s Sour Candy Sweetheart, locally tolerated, barely known superstar. Sunday is the walking definition of “my emo phase affected me”. Taking inspiration of cabaret performers, punks of the 80’s and your favourite alt-pop girlies, what’s not to love?
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Performer
If you are a bad bitch, you already know who Judas Darkholme (they/them) is. High energy, camp and somewhat of a napoleon and/or god complex with a penchant for fake blood (very overdone, ito)
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Bad Bitch Band
Newly formed band Knitwear have been blessing the Manchester scene within the brackets of Funk, Soul and Jazz. With an added layer of sultriness and sophistication, Knitwear bases itself on the intention of collaborative creation and the harmony between genres and instruments. All original music composed by Ross Findlay, Aaron Daniel, Matt Liew, Daniel McAuliffe and Brent Johnson. All lyrics written by Sophie-Mia. Come and listen to Knitwear and see how things thread together.
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Hosts
Hosting Hell’s Waiting Room for one final night is our debaucherous duo, Juicy Rebelle (she/her) and Flaming June (she/her). Excessively indulgent in sensual pleasures these bad bitches sure looked after us during our final time in Hell’s Waiting Room.
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Performer
Blessing our bad bitch stage for the first time was Leila Malik (she/her) performing her spoken word piece ‘Pakistan, My Motherland’ A powerful spoken word piece about the contradictions and difficulties of being mixed-race and belonging to the South Asian diaspora.
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Performers
For their first appearance on a So La Stage; Liliana (she/her) ft AJ Porter’s (he/him) performance was full of singing, bellydancing and queer joy.
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Performer
PJ Cunningham (she/her) is a cheeky bad bitch, creative producer, writer and part-time performer. Expect some witchy ice queen energy collided with some spoken word love letters. PJ is here for a silly time and will be gracing the bad bitch stage for the second time in the trilogy.
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DJ
Making moves on the scene at the moment, Ayse (she/her) is nothing less than a bad bitch. First breaking onto the scene with our first ever Bad Bitch Cabaret last December, Ayse has since played at sell-out events with Warped Wednesdays, supported at events for upcoming Manchester collective ‘wheel2wheel’, as well as the amazing charity funding collective ‘Selectors Support’. With several takeovers for Reform Radio under her belt, watch out for her upcoming takeover alongside fellow bad bitch ‘MBB’ (Zena) on Manchester-based Rainy City Radio, where the selection really will be the baddest of them all.
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Performers
Gracing the gates of hell for the first time was Miss Fuego & Sister Nancy Pagan performing their lustful, liquid ritual. Their performance as Miss Fuego & Sister Nancy Pagan was seen for the first time at the ‘Sluttiest Cabaret Ever’ and we were lucky to have their heated redemption of Rain by SWV that will sure got us wet.
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Performer
Performing alternative burlesque and lip sync numbers, Vincetta Vaudeville (she/her) transforms any space she’s in. Expect a dark, eerie, glorious and grotesque spectacle from this bad bitch.
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DJ
Our very own Miss Bad B (she/her) returns for her third feature at our Bad Bitch Cabaret. Bringing the energy to the third and final Bad Bitch Cabaret. Guaranteed to get you up, MBB provides a blend of music from all corners of the world, edits and bringing home some UK funky bangers.
“This event means so much to me as nearly a year ago it was my first ever booking! If it wasn't for So La Flair I would not be getting up to any of the fun stuff I'm doing now.”
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Performers
Night People is a Manchester-based cross-art collaboration company, fusing worlds of contemporary dance, audio-visual performance and electronic music. They create performance installations, curated events and both physical and digital platforms that provide safe/welcoming spaces for audiences to experience a new wave of party/rave. Directed by choreographers and creative technologists, Aaron Howell and Daisy Howell, Night People integrates the use of various creative technologies, movement and club-inspired antics.
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Performers
Women For Iran is a group of intersectional feminists fighting for justice and freedom for their Iranian sisters. Their Bad Bitch performance protest piece was a call for emergency and action following the developments of the Iranian government's disgusting regime around November 2022. In the space, Women For Iran welcomed all to grieve, heal and fight together.
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DJ
Gracing our Bad Bitch Cabaret for the first time we had PHEE (she/her). PHEE is a Manchester-based multi-genre DJ & record selector with styles spanning from tribal grooves and uplifting disco to deep house and acid trance waves.