BAD LESBIANS to Preview in Birmingham

Selina Thompson Limited will present Bad Lesbians, created by Toni-Dee Paul and made in collaboration with artists Samra Mayanja and Liv Ello and director Jo Tyabji.

Welcome  to the dreamhouse, the fantasy of lesbian bliss - they're good, everything is good. Except, it's really not. Meet Sweetheart, Honey, Babygirl and their emotional / feral support dog - as they attempt to figure out the answer to Haddaway's infamous question: what is love?

As the trio transform the home into a combat arena, old wounds become weapons and the complexities of abuse are wrestled with: that love, gentleness, safety and softness can and often do cohabit with hate, harm, and imminent threat. Who is the villain, when all of us have the ability to cause harm, be harmed and to look away from harm? Whose responsibility is it to call out what we see? How do we exit the dreamhouse? And what really makes a Bad Lesbian, anyway?

The first performance project led (and also co-performed) by artist Toni-Dee Paul, Selina Thompson Limited's Associate Director and lead artist, Bad Lesbians explores queer intimate partner violence through a blend of offbeat humour and knowing discomfort. In this story, it's implicit that we're all complicit. 

This limited run of hometown performances follows hugely successful work-in-progress showings at Camden People's Theatre, London and Francesca Moody's Shedinburgh venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2026. 

Bad Lesbians' creator, Toni-Dee Paul said: “Bad Lesbians starts where a good night out ends: The Debrief. 

“After numerous, different and difficult conversations with friends, many of whom had multiple stories of a 'Bad Lesbian', I came to the conclusion that the toxic and harmful behaviours I witnessed in my community were not an anomaly. That the fiction of a queer utopia was potentially stopping us from having an honest conversation about what's happening inside the house.  

“Bad Lesbians is born from my attempt to put words to something my community and I were and continue to struggle to name. Harm, violence and abuse can and does happen in intimate partner relationships between women, between gender queer people, between AFAB people. We are not exempt just because we choose to build our lives outside of heteronormative standards. The reality is, the bricks that built that standard are the same bricks we've built our houses with, even if we wish that weren't the case.