Alumnus Bette Bourne Welcomed at Gala Event

On Wednesday 12 February, Central was delighted to welcome back alumnus and Honorary Fellow Bette Bourne for a very special gala evening and film screening of the acclaimed documentary It Goes with the Shoes.

The film, featuring playwright Mark Ravenhill as guide and based around his play A Life in Three Acts, explores Bourne’s life as a performer and gay rights icon.  With camp-wit and outrageous humour, It Goes with the Shoes sheds light on a hidden part of gay history: from the early meetings of the Gay Liberation Front to the first mass gay protests in Europe.  It follows Bourne from his time as a student at Central and his long career as an actor to his life in a gay drag commune in Notting Hill.  It also examines his role as the creative force behind the theatre group The Bloolips, who combined politics with radical drag to redefine what it meant not only to be gay, but also to be male.

Following the screening, Bourne, Ravenhill and the film’s Line Producer Gaby Jeffs joined Central’s Deputy Academic Principal Professor Simon Shepherd in an intimate Q&A session.