Polari at Sweatbox Soho

With Neil Bartlett, Alexis Gregory, Piero Toto and Kostya Tsolakis.

London’s multi award-winning LGBTQ literary salon gets steamy at Soho’s multi award-winning, men only gym and spa.

Hosted by Paul Burston with Neil Bartlett, Alexis Gregory, Piero Toto and Kostya Tsolakis, who is shortlisted for this year’s Polari First Book Prize.

Neil Bartlett is an author, theatre maker and performer, who has been making ground-breaking queer theatre since the 1980s. His recent theatre work includes productions of Orlando, Jeckyll and Hyde, As You Like It and Blue Now. His books include Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall, Skin Lane, The Disappearance Boy and Address Book, which was shortlisted for The Polari Prize 2023.

Alexis Gregory is a playwright and performer. His plays include Riot Act, Sex/Crime, FutureQueer, Neon Divine, Safe, and Slap, and the recent Smoke at Kings Head Theatre. His plays have been performed in the West End, across London and the UK, and online, with Riot Act currently streaming globally on Broadway on Demand. He next performs Riot Act at 21Soho for World AIDS Day 2024. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Piero Toto (he/lui) is a London-based bilingual poet, Italian translator and translation lecturer, with poems in Magma Poetry, Poetry London, fourteen poems and Queer Life, Queer Love II (Muswell Press, 2023) amongst other publications. In Italy, he has published poetry pamphlet tempo 4/4 (Transeuropa Edizioni, 2021) and contributes to lit-blogs Atelier and Laboratori Poesia, translating contemporary UK poets into Italian.

Kostya Tsolakis was born and raised in Athens, Greece, and now lives in London. He is founding editor of harana poetry, the online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language. His debut book Greekling is shortlisted for The Polari First Book Prize 2024.

Attendees have the option of remaining clothed or paying an additional £5 to Sweatbox for a locker and towel on arrival, which will allow access to all the facilities (usual admission price £23)

Please note : this is a male adult only space and you will encounter nudity.

Part of the Polari Prize National Showcase, funded by Arts Council England.