OUTCAST WORLD

During the 1980s, half the patients on some of London’s AIDS wards were Irish. It is a staggering fact—and part of an almost-forgotten chapter of queer history.

Homosexuality remained illegal in Ireland until 1993. Many queer Irish people crossed the Irish Sea in search of freedom, safety and the chance to live authentically. They created homes, friendships and chosen families in Britain. But as AIDS devastated the community, many also found themselves on London’s wards, far from home.

At the centre of this episode is Fr Bernárd Lynch, the openly gay Irish Catholic priest who founded New York City’s first...

It's the last weekend of this year's Edinburgh Fringe and in our time in Edinburgh we've spoken to some of the most interesting new and established artists from around the world.

OUTCAST WORLD is live from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — the biggest arts festival on the planet — meeting some of the queer and queer-adjacent performers bringing their stories to Edinburgh this summer.

In this episode, Graeme meets New York performer and musician Joey Jennings, creator of Little Pink Dress — a deeply personal one-man musical about growing up gay, chasing the Hollywood dream, family, addiction, recovery and finding...

The Fringe changes pace once the last week arrives, the flyering gets a little more frantic, the queues at the good venues get a little longer, and the shows that have built word of mouth over three weeks are the ones worth fighting for a ticket to. Outcast World has been across the city all month checking out the best Edinburgh has to offer.

Gareth Waugh: Is Pepsi OK?

There is a version of this show that plays as a straightforward hour about a bad gig or a worse manager, and then there is the version Gareth Waugh actually built,...

Some Fringe shows you have to see to believe, and Final Queen is very much one of them, so this week I sat down with its creator and star Harrison Sweeney to work out how on earth you build a drag circus horror comedy about a queen road-tripping across the Australian outback to audition for Kylie Minogue, getting hopelessly lost, and ending up in an abandoned farmhouse fighting off chainsaw-wielding bushrangers, ghosts and a rolling cast of slasher villains, each one staged as a different circus act.

It is, on paper, one of the maddest pitches of the whole festival,...