Hasbian

Hasbian comes to Mayflower Studios on Friday 23 October, an evening that brings a real teenage diary to life on stage. It belongs to Beth, who grew up in Brighton, the UK's Gay Capital, during the years of Section 28 — the law in force from 1988 to 2003 that prohibited teaching homosexuality as a pretended family relationship. The show follows her journey from a childhood dreaming of The Wizard of Oz to a cringey, Cruel Intentions-obsessed adolescence, and from proudly identifying as a teenage lesbian to discovering that boys are also appealing.

Beth's diary is staged through original animations inspired by teen magazines, with her best friends and first crushes re-imagined in cut-out form and played by the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Natasha Lyonne and Ashton Kutcher. The whole thing runs to a soundtrack of Y2K pop classics and indie angst anthems. It's created by the makers of Queer Diary, the night where LGBTQIA+ adults read their real teenage diaries on stage, and it forms part of Mayflower Studios' Shout Season.

Every performance features projected captioning and artistically integrated Audio Description. It plays in Studio 2, Mayflower Studios, Above Bar Street, Southampton, SO14 7DU, starting at 8:00pm. Tickets are £10, with a Student Special for £5 off, Artist Network Members getting £5 off, and groups of ten or more getting £2 off.