Name: Averting Gays
Start: 2026-03-20T19:00:00+00:00
Location: Porter's Cardiff

In a world that wants us to be out, loud and proud – where do the quiet gays go? Where can you find your place when you’d rather do the risk assessment than the lead the march? Averting Gays is a clown exploration of shyness, secrecy and visibility.
It is a groundbreaking experiment into shy form and refusing the spotlight.
Through the power of pop songs, peep shows and doing mortifying things onstage, Averting Gays looks at how we can honour histories of queer privacy, obfuscation and what it means to opt out of being seen.
There is a lot that is left best unsaid and that is Nerida’s scriptwriting strategy. As marginalized groups are expected to raise their voices, what does it mean to hold your tongue? How can speechlessness hold methods of resistance?
This show is for the bookworms, the tonguetied, the sweaty palmed and the last ones up at karaoke.
It also poses the question - how can you perform as a shy person and not wish you were dead?
Let's find out!
Nerida Bradley is a director, performance maker and professional introvert based in Cardiff. Her work as a director and cowriter has won loads of awards like a Fringe First and the Mental Health Foundation Award for Edinburgh Fringe 2023 but she doesn't like to talk about it
because she's incredibly humble and surprisingly down to earth.
She would describe her practice as stupidly profound and profoundly stupid.
She loves to approach difficult topics through the use of humour and contrast, playing with surprises, reveals and time.
This piece was devised as her final project on the Queer Performance MA at Rose Bruford College.
A caption booklet is available for d/Deaf access.
Photography credit:
Holly Revell
@hollyrevellphotography