Rat Park: it’s a soup kitchen, a talk shop, a performance space and a sober danceteria

Duckie are hoping to produce Rat Park every month over 3 years starting in 2026

After skating around on broken glass with drunken homosexualists at two in the morning in various salubrious Vauxhall establishments for thirty flipping years, Duckie are the club that sobered up

Rat Park is a community meditation on intimacy, relationships, sexuality, mental health, addiction and shame

We have applied for funding from the overlords and will cross our fingers

London is lonely, people are isolated - we need to develop new places to assemble, share our lives and provide care, culture and community

This project will serve all queers: gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, cis folks, trans men, trans women and non binary folk. 

LGBTQ+ people all share similar, relatable, overlapping, psychological struggles. There is much division and partisanship among the tribes and we need unity rather that ghettoisation to build a healthy queer London

Rat Park targets and centres queer people over 40, but it will be intergenerational and inclusive of all

Interested in this project?  Email simon@duckie.co.uk

The pilot Rat Park was every Saturday in February 2025 at a Secret Venue in Vauxhall

Blood - Tears - Piss - Spunk

Queer men over 40 took to the long table in this participatory performance process with shows, discussions, readings, torch songs and interventions

Lit by candlelight, deep in the tina triangle, Rat Park was a live magazine discussion show mixed with an arty performance bill

Hosted by Scottee with the Gay Liberacé Front on the Old Joanna

It featured weekly performances from artists-in-residence Neil Bartlett, Rhyss Pieces & Zack Mennell

Tableau Vivants by Robin Fucking Whitmore and the Punters

Spectacles, confessionals, a few health professionals, catharsis, shaved arses, gigilos and brasses

Expert speils from Kell w Farshéa, Ignacio Labayen de Inza, Jim Warboy, Marc Thompson, Ajamu X, Keith Jarrett, Jackson King, Stewart Who, Jamie HP & Julian Yang

Live songs from Frank Bertoletti, Kit Green, David McAlmont & Shirley Classy

The pilot Rat Park was particularly relevant to the lives of gay and bisexual men, trans women, trans men ünt NBs who are a bit gay, but everyone was welcome

Free Jacket Potatoes, Free Hot Drinks & Free Cake

The pilot Rat Park was funded by National Lottery Awards for All