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A local comedian and cabaret sensation, who had the most public bath of his life in 2021, says his "watershed moment" was a show involving an outfit made of seven wedding dresses - and a dolmen.
Dr Adam Perchard is a multidisciplinary writer and performer, who moves between the worlds of theatre, comedy, cabaret, literary criticism, and opera.
His creative journey started in India, where he grew up and trained with Situ Singh Buehler, the only western trained opera singer in the country.
Pictured: Adam first learned all the great female parts from opera with Situ Singh Buehler, the only western trained opera singer in India, where he grew up.
Having let classical singing go for a while as a result of the conservative repertoire he felt restricted him, Adam went to Oxford to learn English before moving to Spain and returning to academia. He then led a “double life” between York and its “serious conversations” and ‘Bother’, a pop performance act with Ian Godden, which he describes as “lovely and weird”, for a few years.
After researching the western representation of Islam through history, Adam soon realised he was as much a writer as he was an artist. He also discovered academia was not the outlet for all the issues he was fascinated about and he found other ways of mingling "his skills as a scholar and a thinker with his creative ideas".
Video: Adam's bathroom performances led to a sold out run of performances at Jersey Arts Centre.
This year, Adam enjoyed a sold out run of 'Bathtime with Britain', a show inspired by the talent competitions Adam used to run in his bathroom at parties, but it's ultimately another opportunity of flexing his scholarly muscles to create “weird, queer extravaganza" that marked his year.
In September, he presented 'The Thirteenth Fish' - an hour of “theatrical ritual, magic and song” that aimed to immerse viewers in Jersey’s Neolithic past, bringing to life the people who erected the stones and were buried amongst them.
Produced by Jersey Arts Centre in association with the Société Jersiaise, the show is due to returns to the Faldouet Dolmen on 20 and 21 March 2022.
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Pictured: Adam's show will return at Faldouet in March 2022.
"Making my solo show The Thirteenth Fish at the Faldouet Dolmen this year was a real watershed moment for me," Adam said. "Parts of my life that had felt separate suddenly exploded together into this gorgeous fusion of comedy, academia, opera, magic, queerness, and folklore.
"It was an emotional and ultimately quite redemptive process for me: in asking questions about Jersey’s identity through history, I was able to grapple with my own identity as a queer Jersey person, and think about how I fit in here.
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Pictured: "It was glorious. I learned so much, and I can’t wait to bring it back for the spring equinox," Adam said.
"It also catapulted me into all sorts of new challenges: archaeological sleuth, moi? A show with no mics, no backing tracks, no lighting? Where was my dressing room? Where was my basket of Labrador puppies and my decanter of lilac M&Ms? How do you flit around a 6,000-year-old passage grave in an outfit made of seven wedding dresses?
"It was glorious. I learned so much, and I can’t wait to bring it back for the spring equinox – there’s even going to be a dawn performance as the sun rises along the passage!"
Pictured top: Dr Perchard in his wedding dress outfit. (Wayne Stewart)
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