MixMatched Valentine’s (+ One… Day)

On Wednesday the 15th of February the ‘+’ in Neurodivergent+ was a kiss! Thank-you for everyone who came to watch or perform at our valentine’s love, despair and Atypical Romance inspired evening, at our lovely new venue, Bramley‘s! 😀

We’ve started as we wish to proceed…. our first show of 2023 was as strong as ever – with a wonderfully assorted line-up of Spoken Word, Poetry, Improv, Stand Up, and Music!

With a Mix(match!) of performers, old and new, we welcomed thirteen diverse and talented acts…. including Will Peace, who’d come all the way from Hern bay, to perform his beat style poem ‘Autistic Man’, at just under break-neck speed (enabling all us ND+ folk to process!).

Another new poet to our stage was Karl Anthony Mercer who captured us with material upon Love and Loss (and was subsequently head-hunted by Cacofonix Slam!… and will now be performing at their slam night, along with host Emma Robdale in March!).

Patrick Haye, with newfound performance prowess, boldly took to stage to read Dean Stalham’s (previous MM performer, spoken word artist, and writer for EastEnders) punchy poem upon the highs and lows that take hold when under the spell of allure, concluding that,

THE GREATEST THING ABOUT LOVE IS!
THERE’S ALWAYS ANOTHER CHANCE –
TO –
DANCE.

Comedy galore! Adam Dorr, who’s never missed a show (except when he had covid… but we’ve forgiven him!) has gone from strength to strength, and performed perhaps his strongest act so far upon ‘Neuroqueer’ romance, and dating disasters (she mugged him!)…. fast followed by Simon Kempthorne, Master of the Dad Joke, this time fully armed with a romance themed set!

TIME FOR SOEMTHING COMPLETLY DIFFERNT Nathen Keates, with a troop of audience volunteers, hosted ‘Blind Date’, a stage improv game!!! (I ended up dating my second cousin and leaving to Ibiza with parrot Voldemort!)

Returning Performer, Lunar Bloomer, warmed the cockles of our heart with her revelations upon the lighter side of love, alongside Zoe Grasby, another returning performer, stunning the stage with her very touching and hard hitting spoken word upon body shaming, love and acceptance.

This time around we were treated to a substation musical section! – The wonderful, and somewhat ethereal, Autumn, new to our MM stage, graced us with her own music/song on struggle and self-identity. Returning Performer, Chloe Lewer, surprised the crowd by performing not her usual spoken word, but instead charmed us with Johnny Cash songs.

Our penultimate act was our only sign up on the night… mysterious Mike – who shared words of wisdom and warning, using his own insight upon heartache and break. Finishing us off, we were privileged enough to have Nick Goodall – who squeezed us into his spoken word poetry tour/marathon! – beginning with a speech on acceptance, written especially for the occasion, before blowing us away with his poetry, a love sonnet AND a comedy prayer on the topic of trains…. (which went down very well at our ND+ friendly night… YES, we are a bunch of stereotypes!)

Valentines day, for some, can be a lonely affair, but, last Wednesday, I really felt a sense of ND+ love (at points despair), but perhaps most importantly community and solidarity. – and I think everyone who took part should congratulate themselves for finding and connecting with each other that night – I hope to see you all again soon. xXx

If you’d like to contact any MixMatched Performers with opportunities, then please contact: mixmatched.sw@gmail.com

Our full set List:

Start: 6.20-7.00 = 40 min.

Emma Robdale
Adam Dor
Will Peace
Patrick Hayes

Break

Nathan Keates (Runs ‘Jammies’ Improv at Margate, Sundowner’s Bar)
Zoe Gradsby
Chloe Lewer
Autumn Willow (Listen: soundcloud.com/autumn-willow, http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-_ce3uExlQyDsM2xdxyihQ
Simon Kempthorne

Break