Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope

Mark Farrelly's hit solo show returns to the West End after a year-long UK tour.

Quentin Crisp was one of the most memorable public figures of the twentieth century. Flamboyantly gay as early as the 1930s, Quentin spent decades being beaten up on the streets of London, but stayed resolute to his determination to be himself. After achieving fame when portrayed by John Hurt in The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin became an international treasure.

Naked Hope depicts Quentin at two phases of his extraordinary life: alone in his Chelsea flat in the 1960s, stoically certain that life has passed him by (“I’ve come to the end of my personality”) and thirty years later, giving a performance of his legendary one-man show An Evening with Quentin Crisp in New York. Packed with witty gems on everything from cleaning (“Don’t bother…after the first four years the dirt won’t get any worse”) to marriage (“Is there life after marriage? The answer is no”), Naked Hope is a gloriously uplifting celebration of the urgent necessity to be yourself.

The performance is in support of Galop, London's leading anti-LGBT hate crime charity, and London Gay Pride 2016. Copies of the newly-published script of Naked Hope will be available after the performance.