a one-of-a-kind experience of queer healing, hope, and joy
Featured in Kunsty, a queer performance series at the Southbank Centre, Wild Mix is a work about queer healing. Musician and Performance Artist Jenny Moore fuses narration, choir singing, kickboxing, and communal storytelling into this one-of-a-kind experience—a “wild-mix” indeed—that is, at its core, a gesture of care and hope. Soon to tour to Brighton’s Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts in January 2026, this is one worth checking out.
The performance opens as the cast walks on stage, forming a closed circle around the drummer. They share a hug—a moment of togetherness—before opening their circle to the audience. The entire piece indeed feels like this gesture: a light and warm embrace of care, a feeling of community. Through it, Wild Mix offers to the audience something poignant yet not often seen in queer performances, which is healing itself. Being queer can often feel like a chronic pain of loneliness and segregation—from one’s environment, body, and self. Jenny Moore’s creation, however, offers a magical cure for this pain: a sense of togetherness, a sense of being held.
It feels jarring to analyze this show through technical aspects, as what it offers transcends its individual elements. At the center of the stage is a water bag, used as part of the set, a prop, and a medium for lighting and imagery. More than that, it also serves as an incredible sound-making device, blending holistically with the other musical elements. It’s also a metaphor—a container, an obstacle sometimes, and a body that bears witness to joy and wound.
Six performers on stage switch versatilely between singing, percussion, and movement, yet together they become a single collective being on stage. They are the harmony for each other’s songs, the echo of each other’s words, and the rhythm for each other’s beings—a beautiful togetherness. Yet, the performance does not exist only on the stage; it echoes within the entire audience. It’s made for the community who has gone through similar journeys and who are in need of such healing, but the presence of the community also makes the work more powerful and meaningful.
Moore chooses not to make a performance through the lens of oppression, loneliness, or segregation. Instead, she offers warmth and tenderness—a gesture so gentle it becomes a perfectly blended dose of queer joy, community, and collective being. In doing so, Wild Mix becomes more than a performance; it is a shared ritual, a space where the experience of otherness finds solace in the simple, powerful act of being together.