Le Gateau Chocolat
Le Gateau Chocolat exists at the intersection of drag and opera, cabaret and theatre.
For over a decade, Brighton’s Le Gateau Chocolat has entertained audiences of all ages whilst wearing his Blackness, queerness, otherness and politic on his sequinned sleeve.
Counting vocalists Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, and Beyonce, and groundbreaking cabaret artists Paul Capsis and Taylor Mac among their influences, Le Gateau Chocolat’s past performances have included the 2013 Southbank Centre commission, In Drag, Duckie (2016) – which premiered at our venues – plus 2014’s BLACK and Psappha (2017). The work he is most proud of however is Raw Cacao, created to reflect his personal journey as an artist.
‘Raw Cacao evolved during the pandemic into a new show called Liminal which was one of the first live socially-distanced performances to premiere in the UK when the industry reopened,’ explained Le Gateau Chocolat. ‘Liminal then became my first foray into directing with a special season at Kings Head Theatre and a cast of five different opera singers’.
‘Southbank Centre have been long-time supporters and presenters of my [shows], so it means a great deal to be invited back at the beginning of this new work’.
Le Gateau Chocolat will be using their Southbank Centre Studio to develop BLACK VENUS, a performance piece exploring the Bayreuth Festival; from their own experience of being booed on the opening night of last year’s festival, through the complex history of the house and their first black opera artist Grace Bumby, who was lambasted by Wagner ultras and named the Black Venus. As Le Gateau Chocolat explains, ‘Black Venus was the name given to Sarah Baartman and [brings forth] racist ties to colonialism, black fetishism, freak show touring and racial abuse’.
Through the Southbank Centre Studio they hope to bed in the ideas of the show, and take the opportunity of this first development session to build the show’s future pathways. ‘The Southbank Centre have been long-time supporters and presenters of my work from BLACK to Duckie, so it means a great deal to be invited back’.