🌈 Everyone is welcome here: Appleby Blue’s Pride cabaret
Saturday was one for the scrapbook. Appleby Blue’s community centre went full cabaret, with silver and pink fringe curtains, rainbow bunting and a packed house, for a performance of Finding Gary: A Story of Loss, Reunion and Pride, a show about family, secrets and finding your people, performed brilliantly by The Starlighters Theatre Company.
The play, adapted by Angela Struthers, follows café owner Frances as she uncovers a family secret and tracks down a long-lost relative, Gary, now the owner of a Soho cabaret bar, only to find him, and be found by him, in ways she never expected. Southwark Council funded the whole afternoon for the wider community. Without them, this celebration simply wouldn’t have happened, and we’re hugely grateful for their support.
Our residents didn’t just watch – they got stuck in. Some volunteered to help stage the show. Others turned Pride flags into aprons 🧵, worn while serving rainbow cupcakes and drinks to a room full of people ready to celebrate. It was community theatre in the truest sense: made with the people it was made for.
This is what our HouseProud Pledge commitment looks like on a Saturday afternoon. As a formal signatory of the HouseProud Pledge, and Pledge Pioneer, the UK-wide LGBTQ+ housing equality scheme delivered by HouseProud and Stonewall Housing, we’ve committed to our Rainbow Club, and this is that commitment in action: glitter, cake, community, and a room full of people proud to be exactly who they are.
Huge thanks to Southwark Council, who funded the day in full and made this celebration possible, plus The Starlighter Theatre Company, playwright Angela Struthers and our House Proud champions, Jude and Alessandro, for pulling it all together.
