RESPONSE
David Hoyle

25 October 2017

Avant-garde cabaret artist David Hoyle’s RESPONSE, a new performance commissioned as part of Studio Voltaire’s concurrent programmes Putti’s Pudding and Rainbow Aphorisms.

Hoyle’s varied practice explicitly sits at the boundaries of performance art, post–drag cabaret, and political agitprop and is often focused on themes within the LGBTQIA+ community, attacking what he sees as dominant trends in “bourgeois Britain and the materialistic-hedonistic gay scene”.

He often combines disparate elements, from satirical comedy to painting and surrealism, exploring the curative nature of collective responsibility, through the celebration of different identities.

  1. David Hoyle (born 1962) is an English performance artist, avant-garde cabaret artist, singer, actor, comedian and film director. He came to prominence in the 1990s as the Divine David, a kind of anti–drag queen whose lacerating social commentary was offset by breathtaking instances of self–recrimination. Following a couple of outré late–night Channel 4 shows and a cameo in Velvet Goldmine, Hoyle killed the character Divine David off during a spectacular show at the Streatham Ice Arena in 2000. He returned to TV screens in 2005 in Chris Morris’ Nathan Barley and began performing live again under his own name, retaining his trademark biting satire, bravura costumes, wicked comic timing and compelling charisma. Live shows, many of which were held at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, have included Magazine (2007), Dave's Drop-In (2009), Licking Wounds (2010) and Lives (2011).

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