Bette Bourne#Bloolips

Peter Bourne was born in Hackney, East London, into a working-class family. He had two sisters and a brother (actor and singer Mike Berry). His mother was an amateur actress.{{cite interview | first=Bette |last= Bourne | title=The Skin of our Teeth, Young Vic, 2004 | access-date = 31 August 2024 | date = 26 February 2004 | interviewer = Howard Loxton| via = Rogues & Vagabonds | url = https://roguesandvagabonds.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/archive-interview-%E2%80%A2-bette-bourne-%E2%80%A2-the-skin-of-our-teeth-%E2%80%A2-young-vic-%E2%80%A2-2004/ }}

Bourne made his stage debut at the age of four with Madame Behenna and her Dancing Children performing at Stoke Newington Town Hall where he sang "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree". The first play he remembers seeing was a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the early 1950s, although he had an interest in acting before that. His father was indifferent to his son's acting aspirations. When Bourne was 16, he did a three-month apprenticeship as a printmaker. He then worked in journalism at the New Scientist. Bourne began his theatre career working as a stagehand.

File:UK GLF 40th anniversary reunion.JPG

Bourne studied drama at London's Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage.{{cite web | access-date = 4 September 2024 | url = https://www.cssd.ac.uk/news/alumnus-bette-bourne-welcomed-gala-event | website = Royal Central School of Speech & Drama | title = Alumnus Bette Bourne Welcomed at Gala Event | date = 12 February 2014 }} In the 1960s he appeared, credited as Peter Bourne, in several episodes of TV series, including Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers, and The Prisoner.

From August 1969 to March 1970, still as Peter, he performed alongside Sir Ian McKellen in a Prospect Theatre Company touring double bill of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II{{cite web | website= Ian McKellen Official Site | access-date = 2 September 2024 | url = https://mckellen.com/stage/edward/00038c.htm| title =Edward II Credits }} and Shakespeare's Richard II.{{cite web | website= Ian McKellen Official Site | access-date = 2 September 2024 | url = https://mckellen.com/stage/r2/credits.htm| title = Richard II Credits}}

In the 1970s, feeling disillusioned with show business, Bourne put his acting career on hold to become an activist with the Gay Liberation Front.{{cite web | title=Bette Bourne | website=Unfinished Histories | url=http://www.unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-a-e/bette-bourne/ | access-date = 25 August 2024}} He became a part of the infamous gay commune based in Colville Terrace in Notting Hill, London.

Years later Bourne recalled the political transformation. Before the change in gay consciousness that came in the 1970s, he said, "The drag queens would be making the most terrible crude jokes about women but we'd be laughing along." Eventually motivated by anger at harassment and the attraction of a growing counterculture, he took to wearing women's clothing: "It wasn't about impersonating a woman. It was about trying to find a new sort of man, to really question what a man was.... Putting on a skirt, putting on some make-up, it changed the agenda, the way that you thought and spoke." He said others began calling him "Bette" and he adopted the name.{{cite web|last=Ravenhill|first=Mark|date=10 April 2012 |title=Bette Bourne - the Queen of London|access-date = 3 September 2024| url=https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/bette-bourne-the-queen-of-london-6782405.html|url-status=live|newspaper = Evening Standard | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026223845/https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/bette-bourne-the-queen-of-london-6782405.html |archive-date=26 October 2018 }}

Bourne recalled how the early participation of men in drag in a public demonstration in the early 1970s disturbed more traditional civil rights advocates: "A lot of the queens were very afraid of us because we were disobeying the rules in some deep way and scaring them. People got very frightened. We weren’t frightening at all. But it was much stronger than anything they were doing. It was also about a sense of humour or not. Wearing the dresses was great fun as well. It certainly was for me."{{cite news | title =Gay veterans from 1970s will lead 2020 Pride march | magazine =QX Magazine | date = June 18, 2020 | url=https://www.qxmagazine.com/2020/06/2020-pride-march-will-be-led-by-gay-veterans-from-1970s/ | access-date = June 19, 2021}}

In 1976, Bourne joined the New York-based gay cabaret troupe Hot Peaches on a European tour that culminated in a show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Bourne remained there when the troupe returned to New York City.

In London Bourne founded an all-male gay musical comedy company, Bloolips. In addition to Bourne, who took the leading role, original members were Lavinia Co-op, Precious Pearl, Diva Dan, and Gretel Feather. Between 1977 and 1994, there were around 25 members in the troupe. The company employed John Taylor to provide scripts, and later Ray Dobbins. The productions combined satirical political comedy with tap dancing and singing, with the men in clown-like costumes rather than in female attire or as female impersonators.

The shows drew heavily on the glamour of the 1920s and 1930s golden era of Hollywood and Broadway theatre. They were staged, produced, and directed in the vaudeville tradition. The scenery and costumes were designed to look tawdry and down-at-heel. The actors made their own costumes on a limited budget "out of plastic laundry baskets, broken lampshades, and tat from second-hand shops, sometimes using mops as wigs", Co-op recalled.{{Cite interview |title=Lavinia Co-op on how the Bloolips brought radical drag to the mainstream - and the Hackney Empire |url=https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/22936927.lavinia-co-op-bloolips-brought-radical-drag-mainstream---hackney-empire/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=Hackney Gazette |date=14 March 2018}} "The first Bloolips rehearsals were done in my flat in Notting Hill, seven of us tap dancing in a line.", Bourne told The Guardian in 2005.{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Rupert|date=5 December 2005|title=Straight theatre is all fake| url= http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/dec/05/theatre1|url-status=live|access-date= 5 December 2005|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427074613/http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/dec/05/theatre1 |archive-date=27 April 2014 }}

The shows featured adaptations of such well-known numbers as "We're in the Money" and original songs like "I'm Mad about Leisure", "I Want to Be Bad", and "I'd Love to Dance the Tango but my Suit Says No". Many of the show's titles and plots were adapted from well-known movies, including Lust in Space, Gland Hotel, and Get Hur.

Bloolips was first and foremost a vehicle for Bourne, both his insistence on managing his career and showcasing his talents. The troupe premiered their first show at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill, in Powis Square in August 1978 and were, according to Bourne, "a sensation".{{Cite web|last=Hudson|first=David|date=2019-07-19|title=What is 'radical drag' and who were Bloolips?|url=https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/radical-drag-bloolips/|url-status=live|access-date=|website=Gay Star News|language=en-GB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720160232/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/radical-drag-bloolips/ |archive-date=20 July 2019 }} It became a regular practice for the troupe to premiere their productions at The Tabernacle to benefit the local community.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

Bloolips performed in New York in 1980, opening off-off Broadway at the New City Theater, moving to the off-Broadway Orpheum Theatre, and closing in June 1981. Its production of Lust in Space won the OBIE Award for best costumes.{{cite news | access-date = 1 September 2024 | newspaper = New York Times | date = 2 June 1981 | title = Negro Ensemble Wins an OBIE | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/02/theater/negro-ensemble-wins-an-obie.html }}

New York Times critic Mel Gussow lavished praise on Lust in Space and the cast of six: "Bloolips are bizarrely funny. It's not what you do, but how you do it. They tap-dance with clattering precision, harmonize on old sounding tunes and never forget the parodistic nature of their endeavour, imitating everyone from dim-witted ingenues to flamboyant femmes fatales."{{Cite news |last=Gussow |first=Mel |date=14 May 1981 | title=Is the Theater All a Juggling Act? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/14/theater/critic-s-notebook-is-the-theater-all-a-juggling-act.html |access-date=9 November 2022}} In 1993 one reviewer wrote: "If Busby Berkeley had concocted a musical about Ancient Rome and cast it with English music-hall comics who love to dress up like chorines, it might look like Get Hur."{{cite news | newspaper= The Seattle Times| date= January 15, 1993 | access-date = 1 September 2024 |first = Misha | last = Berson |title=Camping It Up with Bloolips |url = https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19930115&slug=1680097}}

;Bloolips shows

Bloolips performed 13 shows before disbanding in 1998. These included:

• The Ugly Duckling (1978–79)
• Cheek! (1978)
• Vamp and Camp (1979)
• Lust in Space (1980–82)
• Yum Yum (1983)
• Odds 'n Sods (1983–84)
• Sticky Buns (1983–84)
• Living Leg-ends (1985)
• Slung Back and Strapless (1986–87)
• Teenage Trash (1987–88)
• Gland Hotel (1988–90)
• Get Hur (1993)
• The Island of Lost Shoes (1995)

In 1988, Bloolips toured Canada, visiting Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ottawa in a Best of Bloolips production.{{cite web | access-date = 1 September 2024 | website = Bishopsgate Institute | title = Bloolips Archive| url = https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/index.php/actions/tools/tools/download-file?id=34042 }} Catalogued by Barbara Vesey, November 2017 and February 2018

A documentary movie shot in New York City in 1993 and titled Bloolips contains footage of the troupe performing Get Hur, as well as backstage footage and interviews with Bourne and other members of the cast.{{cite AV media |people= Kasino, Michael (director) | date= 1993 |access-date = 1 September 2024 | type=Motion picture | title = BLOOLIPS | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov_j8vQmDhM }}

In 1990, Bourne and Paul Shaw appeared with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw in Belle Reprieve, which Bourne and Shaw had a hand in writing. The play was produced by Split Britches and performed in London, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle.{{Cite web |title=Belle Reprieve |url=http://www.split-britches.com/belle-reprieve |access-date= 1 September 2024|website=Split Britches |language=en-US}} The show won an OBIE Award for Ensemble Production in 1991.{{cite web | website = OBIE Awards | access-date = 1 September 2024 | title = 1990s | url = https://www.obieawards.com/events/1990s/year-91/ }} In the New York Times, a reviewer dismissed the show's claim to be a "musical sendup" of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and wrote that it was a cabaret act that referenced that play "only as a point of departure" and "there is little to connect the two works, even as a takeoff". He praised some of the musical numbers–"another number in which three paper lanterns do a tap dance is lively"–but judged the show "sophomoric" with "little originality". He noted the four actors' "energy".{{cite news | access-date = 1 September 2024 | newspaper = New York Times | date =11 March 1991 | title = A Sendup of 'Streetcar' | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/11/theater/review-theater-a-sendup-of-streetcar.html | first = Wilborn | last = Hampton }}

In 1991, Bourne appeared as the 250-year-old La Zambinella in Neil Bartlett and Nick Bloomfield's production of Sarrasine at New York's Dance Theater Workshop. Stephen Holden called it a "bravura performance" and described Bourne as "a phantasmal apotheosis of a renegade erotic spirit, at once a ruined (though regal) grand dame and a sad clown".{{cite news | access-date = 25 August 2024 | newspaper = New York Times | date = 9 September 1991 |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/09/theater/review-theater-sarrasine-sexuality-and-illusion.html | first = Stephen | last = Holden | title = 'Sarrasine': Sexuality and Illusion }} Bourne reprised that role at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1996.{{Cite web |date=19 September 1996 |title=Theatre Sarrasine Lyric, Hammersmith | first = Paul | last = Taylor|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-sarrasine-lyric-hammersmith-1364105.html |access-date=9 November 2022 |newspaper=The Independent |language=en}}

On 9 October 1994, he joined McKellen, Stephen Fry, and others in a benefit reading of Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith that was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.{{cite web | website = Ian McKellen Official Site | url = https://mckellen.com/audio/index.htm | access-date = 2 September 2024 | title = Radio/Spoken Word }}

In 1997, Bourne performed in New York City in a production of Ray Dobbins' one-man show East of Eadie. The New York Times reviewer found much to criticize but thought Bourne had "some excellent material" and "gives the impression of being able to charm by just standing there". She praised Bourne's "splendid Noel Coward imitation" singing "Why Must the Frock Go On?" and the way he delivered his lines in his "wonderful, deep Tallulah-like voice".{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=19 May 1997 |title=Madness, With Slides |language=en-US |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/19/theater/madness-with-slides.html |access-date=1 September 2024}} That same year Bourne won a Manchester Evening News award for his performance as Lady Bracknell in the English Touring Theatre production of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.{{Cite web |last=Loki |first=Reynard |title=Bette Bourne Returns to the London Stage in Fountain's RESIDENT ALIENT |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Bette-Bourne-Returns-to-the-London-Sage-in-RESIDENT-ALIENT-20010101 |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=Broadway World |date=17 November 2008}} That role was Bourne's first as a female impersonator, chosen only after he determined that "a caricature was not required".

{{Cite news |date=10 September 1996 |title=Well, hell... nobody's perfect |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/well-hell-nobody-s-perfect-1362779.html |first = Paul | last = Taylor|newspaper=The Independent | access-date = 3 September 2024|quote=Bourne intoned the famous "A handbag?" line in a new minted way, as though patiently humouring a lunatic, while the subversive radical side of this reactionary dowager was given an intriguing outlet through the gender ambiguity. }}

In 1998, Bourne and Shaw visited the US with a best of Bloolips production tilted Bloo Revue: A Bloolips Retrospectacle, a series of sketches "in an extremely loopy vein", said one glowing review.{{cite news| magazine =Playbill |first= David-Edward | last = Hughes |date= 25 February 1998 | title=Seattle's on The Board Imports Bloo Revue from U.K.| url =https://www.playbill.com/article/seattles-on-the-board-imports-bloo-revue-from-uk-feb-25-com-73640 }}{{cite news | access-date = 1 September 2024 | newspaper = New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/13/theater/theater-review-beginning-with-chickens-and-ending-with-eggs.html | first = Peter | last = Marks | date = 13 June 1998 | title = Beginning With Chickens and Ending With Eggs | quote = Some of the best gags fly on the flimsiest premises, as, for instance, when Bette, with the help of his dressers, suits up as Marie Antoinette to the strains of the 1812 Overture. }}

In 1999, Bourne played his friend Quentin Crisp in Tim Fountain's play, Resident Alien, at London's Bush Theatre.{{cite news | website= What's on Stage | url = https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/resident-alien_28200/ | title = Resident Alien | date = 12 December 2001 | access-date = 1 September 2024 | first = Kate | last = Jackson }} The production toured widely and played in New York City and Sydney.{{cn|date=September 2024}} Ben Brantley described its New York incarnation as "a compilation of wit, wisdom and reminiscence, delivered by an elderly person for whom personal style is a life force" and praised Bourne for "a performance that sweetens clinical observation with beneath-the-skin empathy".{{cite news | newspaper= New York Times | date = 19 January 2001 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/movies/theater-review-bringing-an-eccentric-old-friend-back-for-an-encore.html | first = Ben | last = Brantley | access-date = 1 September 2024 | title = Bringing an Eccentric Old Friend Back for an Encore }} Bourne's work received an OBIE for performance.{{cite web | website = OBIE Awards | url = https://www.obieawards.com/events/2000s/year-01/ | access-date = 1 September 2024 | title = 2000s }} At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001, Bourne won a Herald Award for his portrayal of Crisp.{{Cite news|date=31 August 2009|title=Thumbs up for the Bourne supremacy|work=The Herald|url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-herald-1130/20090831/283171489557140}} Fountain wrote two more plays for Bourne: H-O-T-B-O-I, which was produced at the Soho Theatre in 2004,{{Cite news|last=Hutera|first=Donald|date=22 November 2004 |title=H O T B O I/Us|language=en|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/h-o-t-b-o-ius-65kd88jt0xm|access-date = 1 September 2024 }} and Rock in 2008.{{Cite news|last=Burston|first=Paul|date=26 May 2008 |title=Bette Bourne is between a Rock and hard place|language=en|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/bette-bourne-is-between-a-rock-and-hard-place-z90mngj3jqv|access-date=28 June 2021 }}

Bourne played the role of Pauncefort Quentin in the Donmar Warehouse production of Noël Coward's The Vortex in 2002,{{cite news | newspaper = The Guardian | access-date = 1 September 2024 | date = 11 December 2002 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2002/dec/11/theatre.artsfeatures2 | first = Michael | last = Billington | title = The Vortex }} for which he won the Clarence Derwent Award.{{cn|date=September 2024}} In 2005, he appeared in Ray Dobbins' Read My Hips at London's Drill Hall, playing the gay 20th-century Greek poet Cavafy.{{Cite news |last= Hutera |first= Donald|title=Theatre: Read my hips |newspaper= The Times|language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/theatre-read-my-hips-txd6rdggb58 |access-date=9 November 2022|date = 16 December 2005}}

Bourne worked with Bartlett again at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2003, as the narrator in a production of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre starring Will Keen.{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/sep/25/theatre |title=Pericles, Lyric Hammersmith, London |last=Billington |first=Michael|date=25 September 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=1 September 2024}} More Shakespeare followed in 2004 when Bourne played the nurse in Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe.{{cite news | access-date = 1 September 2024 | newspaper = The Telegraph | date = 21 May 2004 |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3617361/If-only-Juliet-had-been-a-boy....html | first = Charles | last = Spencer | title= If only Juliet had been a boy... }}

In 2005 at the Royal National Theatre Bourne played in Improbable Theatre's stage adaptation of the film Theatre of Blood.{{Cite web|website = Improbable |title=Theatre of Blood |url=http://www.improbable.co.uk/show_example.asp?item_id=10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410184259/http://www.improbable.co.uk/show_example.asp?item_id=10|archive-date=10 April 2008}} For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bourne played Dogberry in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at London's Novello Theatre in 2007. In Variety David Benedict wrote that the director dealt with the "usually unfunny" character by casting Bourne, who "plays marvelously high-status as a doddering gay captain of the guard and savors every last syllable of his character's language-mangling to high comic effect".{{cite news | newspaper = Variety | access-date = 1 September 2024 | url = https://variety.com/2006/legit/reviews/much-ado-about-nothing-11-1200511417/amp/ | date = 20 December 2006 | title = Much Ado About Nothing | first = David | last = Benedict }}

That same year Bourne worked with the playwright Mark Ravenhill on a short play, Ripper, staged at the Union Theatre in London. Bourne played the role of Queen Victoria.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/oct/15/theatre.comment | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Mark | last=Ravenhill | title=Sometimes nothing's scarier than a bit of sponge and rubber tubing soaked in stage blood | date=14 October 2007}}

In 2009, Bourne talked about his life in A Life in Three Acts at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, a staged reading of transcripts of conversations with playwright Mark Ravenhill.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/aug/23/bette-bourne-mark-ravenhill | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Mark | last=Ravenhill | title=The fabulous life of Bette Bourne | date=23 August 2009}}{{Cite web |date=11 December 2011 |title=How We Met: Mark Ravenhill & Bette Bourne | first = Adam | last = Jacques |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/how-we-met-mark-ravenhill-bette-bourne-6273529.html |access-date=9 November 2022 |newspaper=The Independent |language=en}}

In 2013, Bourne and Shaw gave a special retrospective performance titled A Right Pair, charting their journey together over 40 years with monologues and turns from selected productions.{{cite web | access-date = 1 September 2024 | website = What's on Stage | url= https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/a-right-pair-the-marlborough-theatre-brighton_4418/ | date =7 May 2012 | title = A Right Pair (The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton) }} In 2022, Bette appeared alongside Shaw as the Queen at Duckie's Alternative Royal Command event held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

In 2014, Bourne featured in a documentary film about his life and work, It Goes with the Shoes, written and directed by Mark Ravenhill. In The Guardian, Leslie Felperin called it "practically a microcosm of 20th-century gay culture" and called the archive material "ace".{{Cite news | newspaper = The Guardian | access-date = 25 August 2024 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/13/bette-bourne-it-goes-with-the-shoes-review | first = Leslie | last = Felperin | date = 13 February 2014 | title = Bette Bourne: It Goes With the Shoes – review }}

In 2019, an exhibition celebrating the legacy of Bloolips, In Pictures: Bloolips and the Empowering Joy of Dressing Up, was mounted at Platform Southwark in London.{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=Sean |date=2019-07-15 |title=In Pictures: Bloolips and the Empowering Joy of Dressing Up |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/pictures-bloolips-and-empowering-joy-dressing |access-date=9 November 2022|website=Frieze |language=en}}

Bourne died at his home in Notting Hill, London, on 23 August 2024, at the age of 84.{{cite news |last1=Hannay |first1=Mark L. |title=English "Radical Drag" Actor and Gay Rights Activist, Beloved by Downtown New York Theater Audiences, Dies at Age 84 |url=https://stagevoices.com/2024/08/29/bette-bourne-sept-22-1939-to-aug-23-2024/ |access-date=30 August 2024 |publisher=Stage Voices |date=29 August 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Bartlett |first1=Neil |title=Bette Bourne obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/sep/08/bette-bourne-obituary |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=8 September 2024}}

• Marlowe's Edward II (Edmund of Kent), Prospect Theatre Company, Edinburgh Festival & West End, 1969–70
• Shakespeare's Richard II (Sir Henry Green and Abbott of Westminster), Prospect Theatre Company, Edinburgh Festival & West End, 1969–70
• Bartlett's A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, Gloria [production company] at The Drill Hall, London, 1989 and 1990{{cite book | access-date = 3 September 2024 | page = 31 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/319/oa_monograph/chapter/2331750 | title = Sappho Fragments | first = Jonathan | last = Goldberg | publisher = Punctum Books | date = 2018 }}
• Shakespeare's As You Like It (Jaques), Regent's Park Open Air Théâtre, 1992{{cite web | access-date = 4 September 2024 | url = https://openairtheatreheritage.com/actors/bette-bourne/Wq-euSgAAKrvkjS4 | website = Regents Park Open Air Theatre | title = Bette Bourne, Plays and Roles | quote = with a 'feathered cloake, hook-nose and bouffant hairstyle...sweeping across the stage like a bird of prey' (Evening Standard) }}
• Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (Lady Bracknell), 1995
• Bartlett's Sarrasine (La Zambinella), Lyric Hammersmith, London, 1996{{cite news | access-date = 3 September 2024 | newspaper=Seattle Times | url = https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19910920&slug=1306514 | first = Michael | last = Upchurch | title = 'Sarrasine' Is Energetic, Gender-Bending Opera-Vaudeville Mix | date = 20 September 1991 | quote = an ancient wreck of a man (played with gob-spewing hilarity by Bette Bourne }}
• Orton's Funeral Games (Pringle), Drill Hall, London, 1996{{cite news | access-date = 25 August 2024 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/theatre-funeral-games-drill-hall-london-1334863.html | title = Theatre: Funeral Games, Drill Hall, London | first = Paul | last = Taylor | date = 31 May 1996 | newspaper = The Independent}}
• Ray Dobbins' East of Eadie (Eadie), Performance Space 122, New York, 1997
• Fountain's Resident Alien (Quentin Crisp), Bush Theatre, London, 1999
• Coward's The Vortex (Pauncefort Quentin), Donmar Warehouse, London, 2002
• Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Narrator), Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2003
• Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (nurse), Shakespeare's Globe, 2004
• Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (Esmeralda, Homer), Young Vic, London, 2004
• Fountain's H-O-T-B-O-I (Reg), Soho Theatre, London, 2004
• Ray Dobbins' Read My Hips (Cavafy), The Drill Hall, London, 2005
• Simpson and McDermott's Theatre of Blood (Michael Merridew), Royal National Theatre, London, 2005
• Mark Ravenhill's Ripper (Queen Victoria), Union Theatre, London, 2007
• Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Dogberry), Novello Theatre, London, 2007
• Fountain's Rock (Henry Willson), Oval House Theatre, London, 2008
• A Life in Three Acts (as himself), Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2009
• A Life in Three Acts (as himself), The Hague, 2009
• A Life in Three Acts (as himself), Soho Theatre, London, 2010{{cite news | access-date = 31 August 2024 | url = https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/life3acts-rev | publisher = British Theatre Guild | title = A Life in Three Acts | first = Howard | last = Loxton}}
• A Life in Three Acts (himself), St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, 2010
• A Right Pair (himself), Brighton Festival Fringe, 2012
• Shakespeare's Macbeth (porter), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, 2013
• Che Walker and Arthur Darvill's The Lightning Child (Tiresias), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, 2013{{cite web | access-date = 1 September 2024 | url = https://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/the-lightning-child/ | date = 22 September 2013 | title = The Lightning Child | publisher = Exeunt Magazine | first = Lauren | last = Mooney}}

• Caught Looking (narrator), 1991
• My Summer Vacation (English interviewee), 1996; directed by Sky Gilbert, released to retail stores{{cite web | website = The Canadian Encyclopedia | title = Sky Gilbert | url= https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sky-gilbert |first = Robert | last = Crew | date = 4 March 2015 | access-date = 1 September 2024 }}
• Chéri (Baroness), 2009{{cite news | publisher = Screen Daily | url = https://www.screendaily.com/cheri/4042972.article | access-date = 1 September 2024 | title = Cheri | date = 10 February 2009 | first = Mike | last = Goodridge }}{{cite news | newspaper = Bay Area Reporter | url = https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=arts__culture&sc=dvd-streaming&id=227136 | title = Cougar Supreme | date = 22 December 2009 | first = Tavo | last = Amador| access-date = 2 September 2024 | quote= Bette Bourne has a tiny part as a cross-dressing Baroness, an allusion to one of Colette's real-life lovers.}}
• Macbeth (porter), 2013; filmed version of the Shakespeare's Globe production
• It Goes with the Shoes (himself), 2014; documentary

• Dixon of Dock Green (1963) – Robert
• Dixon of Dock Green (1964)– Blackie
• Dixon of Dock Green (1965) – Matcham
• The Avengers (1966) – Allen
• The Prisoner (1967) – Projection Operator
• The Saint (1967) – Perry
• The Baron (1967) – Peter
• The Avengers (1968) – Preece
• Edward II (1970) – Edmund of Kent; telefilm based on the 1969 Prospect Theatre Company production
• A Little Bit of Lippy (1992) – Venus Lamour; ScreenPlay, season 7, episode 9, aired 16 September 1992

{{Reflist}}

;Additional sources

• {{cite book|last1=Cullen|first1=Frank|last2=Hackman|first2=Florence|last3=McNeilly|first3=Donald|title=Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America | volume = I | chapter= BLOOLIPS|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&pg=PA122|date=16 October 2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415938532|pages=123ff}}
• Interviews at the Unfinished Histories Archive, Recording the History of Alternative Theatre: [https://www.unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-a-e/bette-bourne/ Bette Bourne] and [https://www.unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/bloolips/ Bloolips]

• [http://vimeo.com/6830336 A short documentary about Bloolips, 1993]
• Bette Bourne and Bloolips – [https://www.picuki.com/tag/bettebourne Making an Exhibition of Themselves]
• {{imdb name|0100056}}
• [http://www.billwolf.org/01224.htm Lust In Space] - Bill Wolf's tableaux vivant of Lust in Space and the Bloolips troupe during their visit to San Francisco in 1981.
• {{discogs artist|Bette Bourne}}
• [https://www.francielyshak.com/bar-04_bette-bourne/ Letter from Bette Bourne describing Bloolips in New York]

{{Portal bar|Biography|1980s|1990s|LGBTQ|UK}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne, Bette}}

Category:1939 births

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Category:Clarence Derwent Award winners

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Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hackney

Category:English drag queens

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Category:British male stage actors

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:21st-century English male actors

Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century English LGBTQ people