Soundworlds invites you to a very special Christmas party, somewhere in the East End of London, where the queer scenesters and fashionistas are congregating for a festive living-room performance by singer-songwriter Douglas Dare.

However, beneath the glow of conviviality and mulled-wine-fuelled hijinks, all is not well. One of the hosts is conspicuously absent, and the other is preoccupied with a painful secret that only adds to the paradoxical loneliness of the season.

A Christmas Party is structured around a one-off, intimate live set recorded by Douglas Dare in the director’s living room and showcasing bespoke arrangements of Christmas favourites old and new. Around this is threaded a text co-written and performed by George Heyworth (one half of legendary musical cabaret duo Bourgeois & Maurice), which thoroughly immerses and embroils the listener in the messiness of the occasion. At turns uproarious and devastating, it encompasses all of the complexity and bittersweetness of the holidays, which has only been heightened by the ongoing pandemic.

Douglas Dare’s album Milkteeth is out on Erased Tapes. Listen and purchase here.

Party host:
George Heyworth

Voice and piano:
Douglas Dare

Trumpet:

Peter Yarde Martin

Horn:

Anna Drysdale

Trombone:

Chris Ford

Arrangements:

Thom Andrewes

Text:
George Heyworth & Pat Eakin Young

Directed and conceived by
Pat Eakin Young

Sound design, mixing and mastering:
Ross Flight