Warwick Broadhead

Warwick Stanley Broadhead has survived four heart attacks, a triple bypass operation and the guilt and grief of his mother’s and his sister’s suicides.

Born in Auckland New Zealand in 1944, the Year of the Monkey, he grew up in a working class Catholic family of four children. As a child, he failed at his sporty father’s beloved rugby, relished the rituals of the church and loved dressing up. He claims to have known he was gay from the age of six.

He masqueraded as a heterosexual in the army on compulsory military service, then fled to Australia to discover gay bars, yogurt, olives and modern dance. After briefly returning to New Zealand, he travelled to San Francisco, transformed himself into a flamboyant hippy, and joined the notorious ‘genderfuck’ theatre company ‘The Angels of Light’.

Living the unconventional life of his dreams, Warwick had lots of sex, made outrageous costumes for himself and performed in wild shows. He was at last among soul mates.

After getting caught shoplifting some embroidery thread, he spent two terrified weeks in jail before being deported back to New Zealand. Thus began the next stage of his life, directing theatre shows throughout the country inspired by the heady excesses of ‘The Angels of Light’, and shiny fragments of other cultures he picked up on his travels throughout Asia and the Pacific.

And now, in his sixties, a conversation with a young filmmaker about his life turns into a commitment to allow his life story and his work to be filmed for the very first time.