Flamboyance: The Art of Burning Brightly with Jack Parlett
The DOOR, Birmingham REP, Birmingham, B1 2EP
Saturday 10th October 2026
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Flamboyance: The Art of Burning Brightly event with Jack Parlett. We sincerely apologise for any disappointment and inconvenience this may cause. All ticket holders have received a full refund. We hope to welcome you to another event at Birmingham Literature Festival.
Historically, the concept of Flamboyance may perhaps have encouraged misguided visions of the in-yer-face, the out-there, the over-the-top: a term often deployed to denigrate, above and beyond its uses to celebrate. But from its origins in art history to its symbolic representation and adoption in protest, the concept of flamboyance has played a huge role in crafting our cultural, social and political histories.
Writer Jack Parlett takes us behind these multiple meanings, representations and associations to examine flamboyance’s fundamental role in human existence, drawing on an eclectic array of works from Gothic architecture to the music of Elton John. It is also a deeply personal coming-of-age story: of learning to understand oneself better and burning brightly at the same time...
Historically, the concept of Flamboyance may perhaps have encouraged misguided visions of the in-yer-face, the out-there, the over-the-top: a term often deployed to denigrate, above and beyond its uses to celebrate. But from its origins in art history to its symbolic representation and adoption in protest, the concept of flamboyance has played a huge role in crafting our cultural, social and political histories.
Writer Jack Parlett takes us behind these multiple meanings, representations and associations to examine flamboyance’s fundamental role in human existence, drawing on an eclectic array of works from Gothic architecture to the music of Elton John. It is also a deeply personal coming-of-age story: of learning to understand oneself better and burning brightly at the same time...
