Queer Play Reading Club - Dark Sublime by Michael Dennis

Tuesday 19 August 2024
The Railway, Clapham

The Queer Play Reading Club is a monthly event celebrating LGBTQ+ playwriting in a supportive, social space to grow and make new connections. Held in partnership with Nick Hern Books, each session takes place as a table-read in the private space at The Railway, a Queer-run pub in Clapham.

We began the evening with brand-new Queer writing, giving emerging LGBTQ+ playwrights the chance to share short scenes or monologues and receive supportive feedback from fellow theatre-makers. This was followed by a group reading of Dark Sublime with Michael Dennis, with a relaxed discussion and Q&A facilitated by Queer Theatre’s Artistic Director, Andrew Keates (who also directed the West End production) alongside playwright Michael Dennis. The two shared their insight into comedy, take a piece from page to stage and answered many questions from emerging writers.

Dark Sublime by Michael Dennis is a play about joy and heartbreak, quarries and transmat beams.

When Oli arrives at now-forgotten sci-fi icon Marianne's door, he's looking for an autograph – and maybe a friend. Marianne's hoping for the phone to ring, for her best friend to see her differently, for her turn at something more substantial than a half-remembered role on a cult TV show.

As they start to explore each other's worlds, they begin to discover what every good relationship needs: time and space.

Exploring the complexities of connection, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, and the contrast in lived experiences across generations, Dark Sublime is a love-letter to British sci-fi television – those that make it and those that adore it.

Michael Dennis's debut play premiered at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End in 2019, directed by Andrew Keates and starring Marina Sirtis, best known for appearing in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Everyone who attended received a signed copy of the play-text and exclusive discounts on other Nick Hern Books titles to continue exploring LGBTQ+ stories at home.

All photography by Boyan Georgiev