ITCH showcase

ITCH’s second show was held in Yard to a packed crowd of friendly faces. It seems within their short run, the collective have amassed a good following, with the event being a meeting point for many friends, who talked excitedly in the alleyway on Red Lion Street. I’d somehow never been to The Yard Coffee before but was familiar with the fact that the space could be hired, and entering the venue, I could see why the space was so well suited to holding such evening events. The tall glass structure was warm and gently lit, with fairy lights reaching down the long staircase, at the base of which the performances were taking place.

Andromeda Ruth was presenter for the evening, a member of the core ITCH group, and their cheerful MCing made everyone feel at ease. They talked the audience through the running order of the evening and established some great rules to enable everyone to have fun and for the performers to feel as safe and comfortable as possible, which I think is so important. Another golden rule was to be as encouraging as possible for the performers, who were often performing deeply personal material, but the enthusiasm for the acts was already overwhelmingly strong as we welcomed the first acts.

ITCH fosters a safe environment promoting queer creativity and talent through a range of performing arts, and the diverse range of performances was wonderfully refreshing. Something that surprised me was the amount of comedy on display, as three people performed a range of material. Comedian Zara exhibited brilliant comedic timing and carefully crafted their physical performance when telling an anecdote about reaching for a child’s lost balloon. Their calm demeanour and gentle dismay at being seen as a ‘serious person’ made their short performance memorable. Comedian Becky did a brilliant set about her experience of being chatted up by much older men and her strong belief that she would not have survived in witch-hunting medieval times, assigning her sure and certain death to her queerness and auburn hair. ITCH co-founder Finn was the last of the night’s comedians, looking very comfortable up on the stage and doing a wonderful impression of his ‘dad sneeze’ that, quite literally, blew me away.

The dance performances were some of the highlights of the evening, as each performer’s sheer confidence to strut up and down the aisle and interact with the audience were truly impressive. Aura Fixation, who had previously performed at another queer event in the city, entered to loud cheers as she made her way down the long staircase at the front of the stage, swishing her long ponytail as she did so. With her striking eyeliner and sleek outfit, the performer danced effortlessly to Britney Spears, with the crowd cheering the loudest I’d heard all night. Despite being a hard act to follow, Angel Delight graced the stage with similar confidence and style, interacting with the cheek of Doja Cat’s lyrics to lift the personality of the performance too.

This was something I loved about each distinct performance; the acts really interacted with their musical material. Whether it was the performer who had carefully recorded their own harmonies in advance to sing about their strained familial relationships, or the drag king who had absolutely perfected his run at Guitar Hero, the sheer passion amongst each individual was evident. A favourite act of mine was Nefarious De Vile, who looked striking in a turquoise costume, impersonating Greek goddess Circe. The performer had spliced audio clips narrating Circe’s life with snippets of songs that reacted to the information given by the narrator. This set up some entertaining scenes, my favourite of which was the use of Little Mix’s ‘Black Magic’ when describing how Circe poisoned her lover out of jealousy. 

ITCH is entirely funded on public donations, that go towards paying their performers a fair wage for their work, and do a lot to showcase the incredible array of queer talent that Norwich has to offer. Rounding off the show, the co-founders of the collective thanked everyone on stage and promoted their Instagram page, where you can find details of their next showcases, how to donate to their cause, and, most importantly, some trans fundraisers for friends of the collective to fund gender-affirming surgeries, an important cause now more than ever amongst the trans community. I highly recommend attending ITCH’s next showcase and donating to their cause; not only will you have a guaranteed night of fantastic entertainment, but you’ll be supporting incredible queer artists in Norwich too!