Lindsay Kemp

Raised in South Shields, Lindsay Kemp developed a theatrical style combining mime, dance and extravagant visual performance. Flowers, his adaptation of Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers, became his signature work and toured internationally for years. Its openly gay subject matter was part of a production that divided audiences and critics, drawing both enthusiastic support and hostile reactions.

Kemp also worked with David Bowie and Kate Bush. He directed and performed in Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust concerts at London’s Rainbow Theatre in 1972, and film audiences saw him as the landlord in The Wicker Man.