Gay London Life | Feb '26 Edition - Magazine - Page 12
< Scan for London’s latest events>
Going Out
Savage at
White Bear Theatre
There are shows that entertain and shows that sit heavier in the body long after
Ku Bar
the lights come up, and Savage is very much the latter. Drawing on real events,
Ku is one of those Soho bars you don’t really plan, you just end up in. Maybe
as something to be corrected rather than understood. Set against the brutality
it’s meant to be one drink, maybe you’re killing time before something else,
of occupied Copenhagen, it centres love under pressure and the quiet horror
and suddenly it’s an hour later and you’re still there. Early on it’s easy and
of medicalised cruelty, tracing how ideology disguises itself as care. The
chatty, later it gets louder, flirtier and a bit more chaotic in a way that feels very
extraordinary story unfolds without sentimentality, trusting the audience to sit
Ku. The music’s pop, the crowd’s mixed, and there’s always someone you
with discomfort rather than escape it. What makes Savage so powerful is its
vaguely recognise but can’t quite place. Add in regular drag, DJs and themed
refusal to frame this as distant history. The implications feel chillingly current,
nights and it stays just unpredictable enough to keep you hanging around.
forcing a reckoning with practices that still exist, still harm, and still demand
It’s not trying to be the newest thing in Soho and that’s exactly why it works.
attention. This is urgent, sobering theatre that insists on being witnessed.
Come in for one, stay for three, see what happens.
Wednesday 25th February - Sunday 15th March
7 Lisle Street, WC2H 7BA
White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4DJ
Nearest Station: Leicester Square
Nearest Station: Kennington
Website: ku-bar.co.uk
Website: www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk
this is a stark, unflinching account of what happens when queerness is treated
The Lord Clyde London, 9 Wotton Road, SE8 5TQ
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