“Decadence comes from the latin word cadere - which means to fall. It is the beautiful way to fall. It’s a very slow movement which has lots of beauty. It can be a kind of self-killing in a beautiful way, a tragic way” Viktor Wynd
“The Future belongs to the dandy; it is the exquisites who are going to rule” Max Beerbohm
“All the world is queer save thee and me. And even thou art a little queer.” -Sir Robert Owen.
Starring Charles Duff
As The Honourable Stephen Tennant
Devised By Hugo Vickers
Members of The Society can enjoy a sneak preview of Hugo Vickers new play prior to its West End run in July. For two nights only, using much of Stephen Tennants own furniture, The Cabaret Room at Bistrotheque will be transformed into his bedroom at Wilsford Manor.
Monday 2nd, & Wednesday 4th June, 7pm
At Bistrotheque, Waddeson Street, E9,
Tickets £10 each, limited availability
Hendrick’s Halloween Ball Part I
On Friday 23rd May The Society will return to the cavernous 17th Century Vaults of Parker McMillan beneath The Barbican and transform it into a sickly sweet sarcophagus of dying flowers, freshly slaughtered & bloodied fluffy animals, broken children’s toys and coffins to play in, so get ready to put on your red shoes and dance the blues….
The Evening will be introduced at 8pm by celebrated author, founder member of Blondie & guitarist for Iggy Pop Gary Lachman discussing his latest book - The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides,
Tickets to The Ball at 10pm are available now at the specially discounted price of £12.50 each or £50 for a framilly ticket of Five, or £20 including the talk and a light supper
from The Very Beautiful Claudia
Dress Code: The Beautiful & The Damned
(Red Shoes)
Monday 19th May
Carole Seymour Jones on John-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
“A Dangerous Liaison” tells the intense, passionate and sometimes painful story of how these two brilliant free-thinkers - and rivals - came to a share a relationship that was to last over fifty years. Moving from the corridors of the Sorbonne and the chestnut groves in the Limousin, to the cafes of Paris’ Left Bank, we discover how the strikingly beautiful and gifted young Simone came to fall in love with the squinting, arrogant, hard-drinking Jean-Paul.Seymour-Jones describes that first summer of 1929: the heated debates that went on long into the night, the sexual rivalry and betrayal, the dangerous ideas that led people to experiment with new ways of behaving and the deep love that this perhaps unlikely couple shared. We hear how Sartre clandestinely compromised with the Nazis and fell into a Soviet honey-trap. And, thanks to recently discovered letters written by de Beauvoir, the darker, more dangerous side to their philosophy of free love is revealed, including Simone’s lesbianism and her pimping for younger girls for Jean-Paul, in order to keep his love.
This is a compelling and fascinating account of what lay behind the legend that this brilliant, tempestuous couple had created.
Monday June 30th
John Wilton-Ely on William Beckford & Fonthill
William Beckford is widely recognised as one of the greatest patrons, collectors and taste-makers of the 1800s as well as an outstanding writer (author of the classic Gothic novel Vathek). His achievements as an exceptional designer of architecture, interiors, furniture and objects of decorative art as well as of landscape, were brought together in his legendary Gothic Revival mansion, Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire. As this illustrated talk will show, the Abbey was to have as dramatic a history as that of its eccentric creator.
John Wilton-Ely, FSA, FRSA, is Emeritus Professor in The History of Art, University of Hull, and a former Director of Sotheby’s Educational Studies.
other Fellows of The Society who will give addresses in 2008 include Terence Koh in a Black Leather Skirt on London London London, Ian Kelly on Casanova, Erica Wagner on Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath, etc etc
6:30pm cocktails from Hendrick’s and Live Jazz from Alan Weekes, followed at 7:30pm by the talk
at Bistrotheque, 23-27 Wadeson Street, London E2
Tickets
Ten pounds, including cocktails & Canapes from Ticketweb.
tickets may not be available on the door
On The 31st October The Society will magically transform a vast warehouse in Shoreditch into a pleasure palace wreaking of death and decay, a burlesque carnival of Lust & Disgust