Fatt Butcher brings a choral service for queer nightlife to Brighton Dome

Fatt Butcher, a composer and vocalist from Birmingham, brings Congregational to Brighton Dome¹ on Friday 30 October at 8pm. Brighton Dome and Marlborough Productions are presenting it.

The show is an alternative choral mass, inspired by queer nightlife venues closing down. Butcher wrote it with Nicky Harris and Tobre. A live choir of professional queer vocalists sings newly composed hymns for the dancefloor, with piano and a DJ, and the score pulls from house, trance, gospel, classical and experimental music.

The Dome’s listing sets the mood: “The nightclubs are closing, the village is dying, we’re tired and scared, but the beat of the dance floor’s heart keeps on pumping.”

“Nightclubs have saved countless queer lives,” Butcher told Theatre Weekly². “They’ve given us somewhere to grieve, somewhere to celebrate, somewhere to fall apart and somewhere to become ourselves.”

The audience is invited to sing and dance along. Each performance ends with a live DJ after-party, and the DJ on the credits is Just Soriah.

Congregational started as a work-in-progress at Fierce Festival. The tour opened at Aviva Studios in Manchester on 22 August. After Brighton it goes to Homotopia Festival in Liverpool, Warwick Arts Centre, Birmingham Town Hall and Cambridge Junction, running to July 2027. The Times called it “Commandingly camp”.