Not So Lovelies

Anne Crump donated a wonderful collection of images, scripts and publicity shots from lesbian theatre group The Not So Lovelies, which ran from 2014 to 2017 and was based at the Spreadeagle pub, right next to the Croydon Clocktower. Many thanks extended to Anne Crump for donating, Claire Randolph for the following write up, and Catherine Pestano for making me aware of the group.

The following images were donated by Anne Crump, with wording by Claire Randolph in August 2020.

"The Not So Lovelies are a Lesbian drama group formed in 2014. The original members are eight women ranging in age from their 20s to 60s; Anne Crump, Claire Randolph, Emma Westwood, Isabel Toms-Whittle, Nicola Humberstone, Rosalind Pearson, Sam O’Nions and Vic Holt, who came together through performances as part of the Drill Hall Darlings. Emma’s wedding had brought everyone together and at the reception conversation turned to performing again and the concept of the Not So Lovelies was born.

Months of planning followed - as a self-managing, self-directing, self-producing group we had much to discuss; starting by agreeing on a name, how and where we would want to perform, creating artwork, publicity and venues. We agreed to start with an evening of monologues to be performed in February for LGBT history month, around the theme ‘Tales of Love, lost and found’. 6 members then wrote two monologues each and our meetings turned into rehearsals as we got ready to perform.

The Not So Lovelies were delighted to have our first ever performance at the Spread Eagle pub, Croydon; supported by the wonderful Seb Muzy who co-ordinated all performances in the pub at that time. The show was on 7 February 2015 and the monologues ranged from the complications of hiding an exciting new relationship from your adult kids; a history of the initial meeting in a 25-year happy relationship, with nods to long lost lesbian feminist history and intergenerational politics arising from new marriage laws and how this affected one joy-filled newlywed; reflections on the challenges of coping with new diagnoses of illness and disability; celebrations of first and forever love; and a tongue-twisting analysis of the lines of relationship and interconnections between lesbian lovers past and present.

The show was a resounding success, the audience was delighted to have a lesbian show in a venue that was not only outside central London but south of the river. The pub was delighted, Seb said it was the most packed the theatre space had ever been. The Not So Lovelies were also delighted to be performing again and encouraged by the success looked for other venues for this show. Show review by Croydon Citizen

We agreed our next evening of monologues would be ‘Lesbian Winter Warmers’ and 7 of the original Not So Lovelies were joined by two guest members Dee O’Brien and Vic Russell. We performed at the Spread Eagle in Croydon on 28 November 2015. Sixteen monologues were performed including the ‘joy’ of Christmas in Bedford, homages to musicals, pantomime, film, Greek holiday adventures, a ghost story, representations of the menopause, being a Lesbian Outlaw, and a spoken word poem about/for LGBT youth. Once again, the show was a resounding success and the show was performed the following night in Central London at the She Bar. One audience member said “Excellent entertainment! Clever, funny and moving.”

We took 2016 off after working so hard creating the Not So Lovelies and putting on two different shows, several times from scratch in a year. Early in 2017, we met again, to discuss an exciting development, one of the founding members Anne had started work on a pantomime, The Snow Queen: A Sapphic adaptation based on the fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson.

We reviewed the script and agreed a rehearsal plan before once again starting on creating and distributing our own publicity and searching for suitable venues. We also agreed to put together an evening of monologues ‘Lesbians let Loose’ for Pride in 2017 which were performed in Central London at the Ku Bar, as sadly the Spread Eagle Croydon was already fully booked.

The monologues helped warm up our performance muscles and rehearsals began in earnest for The Snow Queen with Anne as writer and director. We were aware from feedback that people really wanted us to do a pantomime and for some Not So Lovelies it is their preferred way of performing, being able to get into character and wear costumes!

We discovered that there is so much more work putting on a show than an evening of monologues, we were responsible for creating sets, costumes, staging, choreography, music, producing, directing, artwork, publicity, all whilst ensuring that everyone was happy. Getting consensus between members isn’t always an easy process but our friendship and determination to create a space for Lesbian stories to be told and represented kept us going, even when one cast member was really ill and we weren’t sure if they could perform at all.

We rehearsed regularly for weeks to be ready for the two shows at the Spread Eagle Croydon on 25 and 26 November 2017, almost 2 years to the day from our first ever show there. Both performances of the Snow Queen at Spread Eagle Croydon were a huge success, audience members making the most out of the opportunity to interact, oh yes, they did! Audience members gave us feedback including: ‘Loved it’; ‘Great evening, well done lovelies’ and ‘It was a fabulous evening. The Kenric group loved every minute of it. Thank you all so much!’ Seb moved on from the Spread Eagle and we have not been able to perform there again but we very much enjoyed bringing some Lesbian history to Croydon.”

by Claire Randolph