Wednesday, November 15

Theatre: Cock and Bull Story, The American Bar, 7.30pm

In the confines of a boxing changing room, an up-and-coming fighter and his coach prepare for an important match. As they psych up for the big fight that will take them from nowhere to the somewhere of unlimited booze and women, it emerges that Travis experiences sexual arousal in the ring. This is disturbing to homophobic Jacko and creates an unexpected psycholological and physical tension between the two friends, as notions of masculinity are challenged.

Film: The Wound, Queens Film Theatre, 6.20pm

In the Xhosa community of rural South Africa, lonely factory worker Xolani takes time off to be a caretaker to young men during Ukwaluka, an annual rite of passage to symbolise the move from boyhood to manhood. What brings him back each year is not tradition or duty but the opportunity to, however briefly, re-establish his sexual relationship with his childhood friend and fellow caregiver Vija, who now has a wife and family in town. When Kwanda, Xolani’s defiant gay young initiate, learns of Xolani’s best kept secret, tension builds as patriarchal masculinity is called into question and choices must be made between the old ways and the new.

Groundbreaking in subject matter and unflinching in its examination of traditional manhood, The Wound is a hard-edged and beautifully wrought film that turned heads at festivals across the world this year, and is sure to do so at Outburst.

Thursday, November 16

The Butch Monologues Workshop, Artcetera Studio, 6.30pm

Join Julie McNamara and Laura Bridgeman, writers and performers of brilliant Butch Monologues, for an Outburst workshop on storytelling your experiences as butch dykes and trans masculine people.

Friday, November 17

Theatre: The Butch Monologues, Black Box, 8pm

Making its Outburst debut, a powerful and humorous collection of secret stories exploring sexuality, vulnerability and desire, taken from interviews with butches, masculine women and gender rebels living world-wide.

Poetry: Ed Madden, Ark, The Barracks, 7.30pm

Ed Madden’s Ark is a poetry book about family, about old wounds and new rituals, about the extraordinary importance of ordinary things at the end of life, about the gifts of healing to be found in the care of the dying. At once a memoir in verse about hospice care and a gay son’s book-length lament for a father who cut him off a decade earlier, Ark is about the things that can be fixed, and those that can’t.

Film: Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World, The MAC, 7.30pm

Created by artist Andrew Logan in 1972, Alternative Miss World is a riotous, queer celebration of the art of dressing up. It is not about beauty – it’s about transformation – and when it comes to costume absolutely anything goes.

Logan will be in conversation after this Outburst special screening of The British Guide to Showing Off – Jes Benstock’s documentary on the history of Alternative Miss World, and the whole kit and caboodle will be followed by a club night featuring  DJ Venus Dupree on the decks.

Saturday, November 18

GCN Town Hall Talks: Lesbians, Who’s Looking? Black Box Green Room, 4.20pm

Outburst welcomes GCN\s Town Hall Talks to Belfast for the first time, with a panel discussion featuring Una Mullally, Debs Gatenby, Sonya Mulligan, and GCN’s Lisa Connell to discuss lesbian representation in the arts and media.

Queertopia: The Mince Ball, Black Box 9.30pm

Join your homoparental performance muthers Gemma Hutton/Dick Von Dyke and Electra La Cvnt as they welcome a host of local up-and-coming genre-non-cornforming queer artistes to Outburst. With very special guests – so special we’re getting the good forks out and covering the damp patch with a Titantic tea towel – Stephen Fae and Dirtbird from Dublin’s brilliant SPICEBAG cabaret night.

Theatre: Triple Threat, Black Box, 8pm

Post-popular prodigy Lucy McCormick and her Girl Squad (pictured above) present a trashstep-dubpunk morality play for the modern world, based on the greatest story ever told. Via a Nu-wave holy trinity of dance, power ballads and performance art. Lucy puts her best foot forward at Outburst in the face of existential deadlock, inviting you to join her in airing out some festering dirty laundry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=-tlQqAKr7wQ

Sunday, November 19

Theatre: Tactics For Time Travel In A Toilet, The Barracks, 7.30pm

The toilet cubicle lock flicks from Vacant to Engaged, and four teenagers escape out of time and space. There is no fixed past or present, but there can only be one future. The possibilities are not limitless. Which future should they choose? And will it really get better?

For the full Outburst line-up and booking, click here.