Astro-Zenica set to perform debut show as part of Bristol Pride

Bristol performance artist James Crawley is better known as Astro-Zenica, founder, artistic director and clown mother for ‘Bristol’s Antiseptic Queer Drag Cabaret & Party’, The House of Savalon.

Hosts of legendary nights, festival venues and family days (having played host to the first ever Loco Kids Club in the spring, they also recently took over Grayson Perry’s Art Club for a sell-out special of The Museum at Night.

For the first time this year, the House will be curating and hosting their own Get Qweird stage at Pride Day (July 9) on The Downs, in collaboration with The Queenshilling, “with the sole purpose of celebrating, elevating and supporting local queer artists and communities to feel strong, proud, resilient and empowered”.

The lineup features artists, bands, poets and musicians, many of whom have appeared at Get Qweird residency nights, including Roux, Paykubi, Blxndie, Florence Squelch and Brook Tate.

Around Pride Day, Bristol Pride is in fact a multi-week-spanning festival featuring a multitude of cultural events in June and July, from performances, workshops and talks to clubnights and socials. Astro-Zenica will be giving the much-anticipated debut performances of A Vaccine Full of Joy: A one night stand with Astro-Zenica, at The Wardrobe Theatre, on June 29-30.

They spoke to Bristol24/7 about the origins of Astro, creative inspiration, overcoming our culture of binaries and what performing – and hosting – at Bristol Pride means:

Astro-Zenica backstage – photo: Charley Williams

How would you characterise Astro? How did they emerge, and in what ways have they enhanced your life?

“I’d characterise Astro as being like a large piece of elastic, a character I’ve created to explore the full breath of my emotions, experiences and capacities as an artist. For me, Astro has a sense of freedom, playfulness, absurdity, humour, honesty and spontaneity that I love exploring.

“Astro plays in the world of the silly, though also has the capacity to play with the darkness of humour, or with sincerity through song and spoken word poetry. It’s a space for me to play authentically.

“Drag is radical, clown is radical; both allow me the capacity to laugh at myself and the experiences I’ve had in my life, and I need constant reminders to keep doing that or the alternative would be – at best – quite derailing. So Astro has enhanced my capacity to laugh at myself and make light of my experiences in quite a healing way, to reclaim my identity as a gender nonconforming queer person, and to reclaim a sense of agency within my life.

“Astro has also allowed me to laugh at myself and, amazingly, the more I do that on a stage in front of rooms full of people, the more inspiring and enriching it seems – not just for myself, but also for my friends and family in the queer community.”

Astro-Zenica – photo: Charley Williams

What can people expect from A Vaccine Full of Joy?

“I’ve spent the last couple of years intensely researching post-truth society: new age Gurus; political fascism as shown by Trump & Johnson; polarising culture wars and social media algorithms spoon-feeding misinformation – in a sense offering each of us our own ‘new reality.’ Have you noticed our extreme culture of binaries? “I’m right and you are wrong!”; “You are right and I am left!”; “I am good you are bad!”

“I’m interested in asking how divisions are sewn between people who have more in common than they may think, and how we can overcome these parts of our culture to genuinely have a shot at building a better world for us to enjoy. Astro-Zenica, born from the pandemic, is a very specific response to a very specific moment in time, exploring these themes and questions through my work.

“The show is an exploration of my personal experiences drawing on elements of live art that I find personal pleasure in as a viewer: comedy, spoken word, and combining images with texts to tell a story. At this stage, it’s an experiment, a work in progress of ideas that have been swirling around my brain for the last couple of years.

“I am trying to write comedy, one that is punchy and full of risks and improvisations, and you just don’t know if that lands until you have an audience to play with. So this show at Pride on June 29-30 is the first test of whether an audience connects as much with the world, the character and the material as much as I do.”

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Who are your artistic inspirations from the world of drag, cabaret and live art?

“I didn’t start going to theatre or museums until I was an adult, and many of my artistic references come from watching television as a child. Mrs Doubtfire was a favourite and Robin Williams has always played a huge influence on my life – his playing with voice and dropping into all these phenomenal characters is something I have always loved playing with. As a fellow scouser, I fell in love with Cilla Black and Lilly Savage, and these kind of TV shows massively influence my cabaret style, often improvising with audiences to discover new games in the moment.

“I was a huge musical theatre kid and so I often sing big Broadway numbers, full of heart, camp and spectacle during my shows. In recent years I’ve become more engaged with the queer live art scene, finding inspiration from friends and other performers: Auntie-Climax, Midgitte Bardot, Travis Alabanza, David Hoyle, and Figs In Wigs. When it comes to live art the weirder the better, hence why I started up a night called Get Qweird!”

What do you enjoy most about being on a stage?

“It’s all about the freedom to be myself. It’s funny to say it but the stage has always been an ultimate space of refuge for me. As a queer person I’ve always been celebrated when I’m on stage, from the age of nine when I played the lead role in Oliver Twist.

A few years later, my fellow gay friends and I started the first GCSE drama class at our all-boys high school, staying behind after school two evenings a week for class. After realising they couldn’t physically force us to go to P.E, we were also allowed to use that time to rehearse.

“We put on our school’s first and exceptionally gay musical, Hey Scrooge, where I again played the lead. It was the campest thing you ever did see, all of us openly gay, saying a big f*ck you to what was – at least for me – an oppressively homophobic culture to grow up in.

“In my most formative years, the culture I was being raised in tried to suppress my authenticity through attacks, abuse and harassment, whereas on the stage I could just be who I am, express myself as I am, and be celebrated for who I am. I can’t imagine my life without it and I am working extremely hard to sustain a career in live art and performance.”

A Vaccine Full of Joy, Astro-Zenica – photo: Charley Williams

How does it feel to be performing at Pride this summer?

“Performing at Pride feels like a moment! It’s an opportunity to reclaim my identity, reframing and sharing my story on my terms and from my point of view. It feels like a homecoming to who I am and who I’m supposed to be in this crazy world of ours.

“I can’t promise my show will be any good, but a big part of my process as Astro-Zenica is to allow more self-kindness; to be softer and gentler with myself, less caught up in perfectionism, and leaning more into the pleasure of performance. I’m just playing with ideas, processing my experiences and while sometimes that can be really tough, I’m now finding the balance is tipping much more towards fun and pleasure, which is exactly where it needs to be.”

Finally, can you tell us a bit about your drag family, you role at The House of Savalon and your journey together so far?

“My queer chosen family are the best and I am so grateful to everyone who comes along to share the journey! I founded The House of Savalon, giving myself the title of Artistic Director. I felt that taking leadership – something I had always feared – was exactly what was needed to elevate every aspect of the project to where I wanted it to be, as my vision has always been clear.

“It’s been so exciting to see it explode the way it has. I’ve produced three sell-out immersive shows at The Loco Klub. I also produced a four month residency called Get Qweird: A Playground For Queer Live Art (supported by Arts Council England, Submerge Festival and the Queenshilling) giving a platform to queer emerging artists to explore and experiment with their art and identities. Now, to have received commissions from huge organisations in Bristol such as The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and to be curating our own stage at Bristol Pride this year – it really feels amazing.”

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Bristol Pride presents: A Vaccine Full of Joy (age recommendation 18+) is at The Wardrobe Theatre on June 29-30 at 9pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com.

The Get Qweird Pride Stage, from The House of Savalon, is part of Bristol Pride, on the Downs, on July 9. For more information on Bristol Pride, visit www.bristolpride.co.uk.

Main photo: Charley Williams

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